Gut Feeling Rewrite
by clockworktrain
Summary: Rewrite. When Richard West is viciously attacked, the police suspect his daughter Jade, despite her claims of innocence. From friends to family to jurors, everyone seems to have a gut feeling that Jade West attempted murder.
1. Inner Workings

**Gut Feeling.**

1\. Inner Workings.

"_I swear to God I will brutally murder the next person who interrupts my audition_!" screamed Jade West, Hollywood Art's resident badass, as she stormed across the stage to restart her scene for the fourth time.

The first time she started she was interrupted by a perky freshman seeking a different classroom, who was promptly and unkindly chased away. Next it was the nurse seeking Sinjin (no one dared to ask why). Unlucky number three happened to be Lane, who burst in looking for Jade herself. She continued fuming on stage, her limited daily quota of patience having already been used up before the lunch period was even over, as two men in black suits followed Lane into the theater.

"Jade," the guidance counselor began evenly, "these men are from the police department. They need to speak with you."

"Am I being arrested?" Jade asked indifferently.

"No."

"Has my car been stolen?"

"No, but—"

"Then it can wait!"

Lane responded with a resigned, "'kay," and led the suits from the police station out into the hall.

Ten minutes later Jade joined them, looking significantly less outraged, her bag slung over her shoulder, her audition complete to her satisfaction.

"Alright, what?" she demanded of the suits, slipping her Pear Phone into the pocket of her jeans.

"Jade, these—"

"I didn't ask you." Jade turned her attention expectantly toward the suits. Suit #1 looked down at her, grim determination clenching his jaw as he spoke.

"Your father was attacked last night."

"Oh." Jade was significantly subdued by her shock. "By whom?"

"Well, that's what we're trying to figure out," Suit #2 supplied.

"Oh."

They were all quiet for a few seconds, until Jade asked apprehensively, "is he dead?"

"No," Suit #1 responded quickly. "But he is in an induced coma until the swelling in his brain goes down."

"So he was beaten." It wasn't a question.

"Well… Yes. With a tire iron, as far as we can tell, in the parking lot outside the restaurant Nozu."

"Jade," Lane said, in therapy mode, "I've given you the rest of the day off."

"Why would I need that?" she snapped, recovered.

"Well, we assumed you would want to see your dad…"

"I know what he looks like!" she retorted. "I mean, I've already seen him for this month."

"This month?" Suit #2 questioned. Jade rolled her eyes at his lack of tact (and intelligence). #2 was clearly the rookie of the operation.

"Yes. Monthly visits. That was the custody agreement." Her words were clipped.

"Oh."

"Yeah. _Oh_."

"Jade," Lane tried again. She was starting to want to cut out his tongue. "Jade, I really think you should go see your dad."

"I can't. I have tests in two classes and an assignment due in the other."

"I'm sure your teachers will understand."

"Well I don't! Why would I want to visit someone who's unconscious?" Without waiting for an answer, Jade stalked around the corner and out of sight.

Someone tried to kill her father, apparently with brute force alone. The fact that this happened to someone in her family – not someone on the news, but someone in her albeit broken family – was shocking enough to make her hands shake. She didn't care much for her dad, that was true enough. He had particularly upset her recently at a showing of the last play she wrote, where he left halfway through the first act and called her mother about pulling her out of school because she wrote such disturbing material. Jade admitted that the play was dark, but it had a happy ending…somewhat. At least, nobody died or was maimed in that particular show. She had phoned him in a rage, and the confrontation was upsetting to say the least. It wasn't enough to make her plan his murder, but it stung even now. Still, Richard West didn't deserve to be beaten half to death. For all her talk of violence, Jade couldn't condone such a crime, even when the victim was such a man. But perhaps the crime had nothing to do with her father's terrible personality, and more to do with money or sheer convenience. Even Jade couldn't unravel the inner workings of such a mind.

Another mind she couldn't unravel smacked into her full force as she rounded the corner near the central stairs.

"Oh, sorry!" Beck said as he backed away.

"It's fine," Jade said harshly. Her feelings about Beck were, as always, mixed. She hated him for the way they broke up, hated herself for breaking up, and wished things could be as they had been before, when everything was fine. "Why are you out of class?"

"Flying to Canada today to visit family," he responded, making an airplane gesture with his hand. "Why were you in guidance? Finally kill Sinjin?"

She knew it was a joke, but it rattled her. Did Beck really think her capable of killing someone?

"I didn't kill anyone!" Jade shouted. "You know I wouldn't do that."

"Woah," Beck stepped back again. "Yeah, I know. It was a joke. Is everything alright?"

"My," Jade paused to groan at the fact that she was telling the truth. "My dad was attacked last night and he's in the hospital unconscious."

"Oh my God! What happened?"

"Someone beat him up with a tire iron apparently."

"Oh my God," he said again. "Are you okay?"

Jade shrugged. "Fine. Never liked the guy anyway."

The bell rang.

"Right," Beck was saying. "Well I'll be in Canada for a few days but please keep me posted, alright?"

"If I can." Jade stalked off to her next class without saying goodbye. She had gotten to a point where she almost hated seeing Beck; she would rather not see him at all than have such awkward conversations.

The rest of the day went relatively smoothly, especially knowing another Beck encounter was impossible, no matter how handsome he still was. Jade didn't tell anyone else what happened, and no one was looking at her funny (or funnier than usual), so the policemen must have gone unnoticed. But when the end of the day came around, she dragged her feet and took a detour, dreading her mother's hysterics when she got home. Thought it had been over three years since the divorce, Linda West clearly harbored a hope that her ex-husband would come back home again. Jade knew he wouldn't — exes rarely do, and she knew that firsthand.

When she finally did get home, Jade found her mother exactly how she expected her to be: sitting on the couch surrounded by wet tissues. When she noticed Jade's presence, Linda leapt off the couch and smothered her daughter in a hug.

"Oh, honey," she sobbed against Jade's shoulder.

"I know, Mom."

"It's so awful!"

"Yeah."

Linda stepped back and started gathering up the tissue mess.

"You don't have to see him if you don't want to. I know how you feel about him."

"I'm…" Jade hesitated. "I'll see him if you want me to, but I don't get why you'd want me to."

"He would want you there," Linda said gently, brushing her tissue-free hand against her daughter's cheek. "He loves you."

Jade scoffed.

"I do want you to see him, but not until he wakes up."

"When are they waking him up?"

"Tonight or tomorrow morning; they called."

"I'll…" Jade sighed. "I'll go visit tomorrow. During lunch."

"Promise?"

"Promise."

"Thank you sweetheart."

"Will you meet me there?" Jade asked expectantly.

"No, no, I couldn't. I would be in the way. Besides, I can't stand hospitals."

"Right." Jade's voice was faint.

_Keep my eyes open_

_My lips sealed_

_My heart closed and_

_My ears peeled_

* * *

Welcome back everyone! Here is the first chapter of the rewrite. Not much has changed, but things get a little different through the rest of the story. I'm up to chapter ten right now, so expect more soon! More Beck, more insight into Jade, maybe even more crime ;)


	2. Everybody Tells

1\. Everybody Tells.

The next day, after stopping for a large coffee at a Jet Brew on the way, Jade spent the time before first period hiding in a practice room in the music department. Her morning classes were, thankfully, vacant of her solicitous friend group, and she managed to duck back into the soundproof recording studios during her free period. When lunch finally rolled around, however, her luck ended in the form of Tori Vega, who found Jade when she went to the bathroom and dragged her to the rest of the gang (minus Jade's ex, who was in Canada for whatever reason) at their table at the Asphalt Cafe.

"Jade!" Cat squealed.

"How are you?!" Tori asked. Her voice was strained with genuine concern, which was reflected on three other faces circling the table. Jade sighed.

"I'm fine," she responded flatly.

"Are you sure? How's your dad? Is he okay?"

_Beck_, Jade thought furiously. _He told them._

"I don't know. I was just on my way to go see him when you manhandled me over here."

"Oh. Sorry." Tori let go of Jade's arm, but the dark-haired teenager remained seated.

"Why aren't you leaving?" Andre whispered from Jade's left.

"I don't actually want to go." Jade confessed this as if it were obvious.

"Why not?" Robbie (unaccompanied by any puppets, thank God) asked, wide-eyed.

"The man's unconscious!" Jade snapped. "So the only person who's actually going to be there besides me is _Celia_."

"Oh," Tori nodded as if she understood perfectly. "Who is Celia?"

"My father's wife."

"Well what's so bad about her? What's she like?" Tori asked curiously (nosily).

"Nothing's wrong with her. She's the perfect trophy wife. Plus she was a package deal with Yapper, the perfect trophy child."

"She named her kid _Yapper_?" Andre asked, borderline appalled.

"Nah. Her dog. A bitch-on-frizz or however you pronounce it."

"_Bichon-frisé_," supplied Robbie. Jade reached around Tori to give him a slap on the back of his head.

"She named her _dog_ Yapper?" Andre nearly repeated.

Jade shook her head. "That's just what I call it. It's real name is Vera Wang."

"Ooh! Like the wedding dress designer!" Cat exclaimed, clapping.

"Yeah. Apparently the dude she was with before my father bought it for her as a joke 'cause he couldn't afford a real Vera Wang dress. Needless to say they didn't get married. He's probably decomposing in a sewer by now."

On that note, Jade pushed away from the table and continued on her way to her car.

* * *

Jade puffed out her cheeks as she let out a sigh, looking at the automatic sliding doors of the hospital. She finally made her feet move through them, and approached the nurse receptionist who was watching her expectantly.

"Hello. Can I help you with something?"

"Hi. Yeah, I'm looking for my dad. He was brought in night before last."

"And what's his name?"

"Richard West."

"Alright. He's in Room 214. Just go through these doors and—"

Jade was already disappearing through them.

She got herself a little lost on purpose, peeking into rooms she shouldn't, walking by counters of harried nurses filing paperwork, and seeing one lab-coated doctor with an uncomfortably large syringe. Then, when she could stall no longer, Jade went to the second floor and found Room 214. Grimacing, she turned the handle and peeked inside. The first thing she noticed was the annoying beeping of a heart monitor. Then she saw Celia, as young and blonde as always, perched on an armless chair, her face buried in a tissue, her puppy squirming in her arm. Jade wondered vaguely how she managed to smuggle Yapper into the hospital. Finally she turned her gaze to her father, covered in white sheets and a beige blanket on the bed. His face was covered in black and red bruises and his lip was split. Oxygen tubes ran from his nose to a machine on his right. His left arm was in a sling, and a bulky shape beneath the covers told Jade he had a broken leg too.

"Jade." Celia's voice was thick with tears.

"Celia. Why isn't he awake?"

"They said he might not wake up for days!"

Celia started sobbing all over again. Jade sighed, patting her awkwardly on the shoulder. Though she found her stepmother's values repulsive, and her fashion even more so, Jade and Celia had never really had a problem with each other. They tolerated each other perfectly well when they had to. And with Richard lying unconscious in front of them, they had to.

With a hideous scraping sound, Jade dragged another chair up to the bed beside Celia's. She dropped her bag to the floor with an unceremonious thump, leaning back.

"So what've all the doctors said?" she asked her stepmother mechanically. Celia sighed.

"Right now it seems like they're got more questions than answers. Same with the police. They come asking me stuff almost every day, but don't have any suspects or anything."

Jade wasn't surprised. She'd never put too much stock in medicine or law enforcement. Justice was just a little too hard to come by on this planet.

Jade stayed only a few more minutes, mostly ignoring Celia. She slipped out when a nurse came in to check on all the incessantly beeping machines and started heading back to school. Midday traffic was bad enough that class was already over when she arrived. As she headed through the vacant halls toward her locker, she spotted Cat bouncing out of the principal's office.

"Cat."

"Jadey!" Cat gasped excitedly. "How's your dad?"

"Why were you in the office?" Jade ignored Cat's question.

"Oh some nice guys were asking me stuff."

"What nice guys? Actually, no, what 'stuff'?" Jade was suspicious.

"Stuff about school, stuff about my friends. I talked about you a lot, since you're my best friend!"

Jade's lips smiled weakly, but it disappeared when she caught sight of the Suits from the day before watching her from the office.

"What did you say about me?" Jade prodded Cat.

"Lotsa stuff! You're super interesting! Plus this whole awful thing with your dad. How is he?"

"He's unconscious, Cat."

"Well yeah, but did he say anything?"

Jade closed her eyes, held her breath, and started counting to ten. Cat shrugged and skipped off down the hall. When Jade hit ten, she was struck with a familiar feeling of despair that she didn't mean to reignite. But at least she wasn't angry anymore, right?

When Jade arrived back home that afternoon, she found Suit #1 shaking hands with her mother. #2 was sliding a little notepad back into his jacket.

"Hi, honey!" Linda said. "How was school?"

"Um, fine. What's going on?" Jade didn't take her eyes off Suit #1, the elder of the two.

"Jade, this is Detective Finley" —Suit #1 nodded formally—"and Detective Gordon."—#2 waved awkwardly—"They're investigating what happened to your dad."

"We've met," said Jade tonelessly.

"We _were_ just leaving…" Suit #1—or, Detective Finley—said, "but we would really like to speak with you, if that's alright."

"Of course it's alright!" Linda interjected.

"No. Actually it's not. If you were just leaving, you can just leave. I've got stuff to do." Jade waved them toward the doorway.

Both Suits looked moderately surprised by that answer.

"Okay," #1 said slowly. "Then I suppose we can speak some other time."

"Yeah, we'll see."

Jade made sure they were out the door before saying another word.

"_Jade_!"

"_What_?"

"You can't just speak to police officers like that!" Jade's mother looked horrified.

"Mom, they aren't gods. They're people."

"People who can arrest us!"

"Exactly."

"What?"

"_Mom_," Jade groaned exasperatedly. "They think one of us did it!"

"Did what?"

"Tried to kill my father!"

"But we didn't! Why would they think that?"

"Well, we have pretty great motives."

"What do you mean?"

"_He left us, Mom_! He married a wealthy socialite! We have every reason to hate him! And I do!"

Linda was momentarily speechless, for once.

"I have a lot of homework," Jade lied, disappearing into her bedroom.

Jade spent that night and the rest of the weekend purposely alone. She avoided everyone. Cat was the only one she ever really hung out with since a certain infamous night at the Vega's, but she couldn't give the red-velvet-headed girl any more information that the police could use. Though it didn't surprise her one bit, it did slightly sicken Jade that the Suits were tricking her naive friend. So she holed herself up in her room, slicing up anything she could find with her favorite scissors. When the comforting snipping sound was interrupted by her mother's chattering on the phone (probably to Jade's aunt), Jade traded her scissors for headphones, upping the volume until the real world was thoroughly drowned out.

_Got a secret_

_Can you keep it?_

_Swear this one you'll save_

* * *

Drop a review so I know this is all worth it!


	3. On My Tiptoes

3\. On My Tiptoes.

News of Jade's father spread through most of the Hollywood Arts student body (and faculty) over the weekend, due to a senseless post by Cat on the Slap. Jade didn't necessarily blame her for it, since it was asking for sympathy, but Jade didn't want anyone to know about the situation, much less offer her sympathy. This post, of course, put Jade into a mood about 85% worse than usual on Monday. She was about ready to start throwing punches when a familiarly calm voice issued from the other side of her open locker door.

"Hey."

Jade slammed her locker shut forcefully, only to find herself face-to-face with Beck.

"Aren't you in Canada?"

"Um, no," replied Beck with a charmingly lopsided grin, "I'm right here."

Jade was thoroughly nonplussed by this response.

"Why are you bothering me?" she asked, turning back to her locker contents.

"Well, about your dad…" he said, all traces of humor gone. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, like I told you last time," she snapped, her eyes widening in annoyance. "Now thanks for your 'concern' and all, but _bye_."

She stalked away, making it about a step and a half before Beck's hand grabbed her arm and pulled her back.

"There's more."

"Well _what_ then?!"

"The police came to my RV last night."

"Whoop-dee-do." Her stomach was in her throat.

"They asked about you."

"What _about_ me?"

"What you're like, why we broke up, if…" he sighed, "if you're violent."

"And what did you say?"

"I told them the truth."

"Which is?"

"That you wouldn't try to kill anyone."

"Well I _might_ just have to try to kill those idiot cops!"

"Jade!" Beck put his hands on her shoulders, which she shook off roughly. "This is some serious chizz, don't joke."

Jade bit her lip, all pretenses of nonchalance suddenly gone. "I know. They were questioning Cat, and they were in my house when I got home on Friday."

"You've threatened plenty of people, and the police, they don't…" Beck hesitated. "Well, they don't know you like I do," he finished quickly.

"Your point being…?"

"They might think you're actually capable of something like this."

Jade didn't answer, her eyes searching aimlessly without really seeing anything.

"We need to prove you didn't do this. Find some evidence, or –"

Two blue eyes snapped back into action, a snarl suddenly twisting her lips.

"'_We_'?!" she chuckled humorlessly. "No."

She tried once again to walk away, but he hurried to step in front of her path. She glared daggers, fuming. _If looks could kill._

"Obviously, you're mad at me, and I get that, sort of, but you can't just—"

"I am not talking to you anymore," Jade declared, shoving her way past him and walking down the hall. Just as she was about to turn the corner, she heard him shout exasperatedly:

"I'm trying to _help you_!"

Seething, her eyes flashing, Jade whipped around and stalked back toward him, closing the distance in four sharp paces.

"_No_. You're trying to help _yourself_," she snarled, jabbing his chest.

"How?" Beck retaliated desperately, spreading his arms wide.

Jade paused for a moment, going back through the last few minutes in her mind, her lips pursed. Finally, she looked back up at him.

"I don't know yet. But you _always_ are."

* * *

Jade didn't show up at the Asphalt Cafe for lunch. Cat might miss her, but no one came looking. She secluded herself in a corner by her locker, picking at her food distractedly. Her head perked up when the doors to the school opened, and voices she knew all too well were conversing with one another. She stood automatically to join them when her name was mentioned. Jade pressed herself to the lockers in an effort to go unnoticed.

"Yes, Tori, of course I've met Jade's father. He's an asshole and she _should_ hate him, but that doesn't mean…" Beck trailed off. A locker padlock was clicking.

"I dunno, man." It was Andre speaking. "She might've just… I dunno, _lost_ it."

"Yeah!" Jade could practically hear Tori's head nodding vigorously. "She attacked me when she saw that footage from _The Wood_!"

"She threw a rock at you when she saw that picture of you and Alyssa Vaughn!" Andre put in.

Jade heard a locker shut.

"I still don't think she did it. And I'm not going to believe she did it until someone proves_ beyond a reasonable doubt_ that she did."

"What, you get a book on law recently?" Andre teased.

"Yeah it's called the _internet_," Beck snipped. Clearly he was not in the best of moods.

"Beck, you saw the stuff the police had!" Tori cut back in. Her voice faded as the trio turned the corner.

Jade stayed frozen where she was for a good two minutes. _What did the police have?_ Could they actually have something, some evidence, that made Jade a real suspect? She had half her father's DNA, could that be at the crime scene, and they thought it was hers? He was attacked at the parking lot at Nozu; she had been there plenty of times, her full DNA could be in the parking lot! Jade was starting to panic only slightly as the scenarios built in her mind. Could she be arrested for this?

She got up off the floor and snuck around the corner to surreptitiously follow the people she once almost considered friends (that is, Beck, Andre, and Tori). They had gone toward the Black Box theater where their next class was, so she hovered outside the doorway and listened to the rest of their conversation.

"…isn't fair," Beck was saying.

"Of course it isn't, we need to do something!" Tori responded.

"I think we should do nothing," Andre said casually.

"Now _that's_ not fair."

"But we could get in trouble if we do anything!"

"We're not going to get in trouble," Beck appeased with an audible eyeroll.

"It's illegal!"

"It's not illegal, its unadvisable."

"I think it's _inadvisable_," Vega put in.

"Whatever!"

"I still say it's illegal for us to tell Jade anything we told the police." Andre had leapt from his chair, Jade heard the scraping. "What if she…."

"What is she going to do? I already told her what I said to them. She deserves to know. We're her _friends_, we're not trying to pin a crime on her that she didn't do!"

"Are we sure she didn't do it?" Tori said in a very quiet voice.

Jade flinched as the bell rang and a horde of students made their way around the corner. She slipped into the crowd and made her way away from the Black Box, where her next class was with the three traitors she was eavesdropping on.

_Will I always know this divide?_

_Living most of this war inside_

* * *

Please review! I have no reviews yet :( Also hmu if you're looking for the songs I'm using as chapter titles and such


	4. Keep Up

4\. Keep Up.

Jade skipped two periods after lunch in order to avoid Beck, Tori, and Andre, (and Robbie for good measure) which of course caused a flurry of text messages to be sent to her PearPhone.

Three _where are you_s from Cat.

Two _Sikowitz is looking for you_s from Tori and Andre.

One _are you okay_ from Beck.

She finally had to shut off her phone, the constant buzzing making her hand go numb _and_ interrupting her music as she sat in the janitor's closet and tried to tune out her life. She heaved herself off the floor when the bell signaled the end of the period. Taking the passage through the library, she snuck to last period, settling at a desk in the back corner of History. She picked at her nail polish, letting her hair shadow her face. She heard familiar footsteps bouncing toward her, and suddenly Cat had her nose to Jade's.

"Why weren't you at lunch? Where were you?" Cat asked grumpily, like a kindergartener scolding a stuffed animal she'd lost. "And Sikowitz asked about you like a million times."

"Just tryin' to keep everyone on their toes," Jade replied with a sly grin.

Cat pondered this for a moment, plopping down in the seat to Jade's left.

When their History teacher entered the classroom, she scanned the students in front of her, her eyes finally landing on Jade.

"Jade," she called, and a pair of sharp blue eyes turned to her in annoyance. "You need to go to guidance."

"Excuse me?"

"Lane asked to see you."

"Your point?" Jade didn't move.

"Jade, go to the guidance office," the teacher demanded. Jade raised her eyebrows.

"Well, since you asked so nicely." Jade pulled her bag onto her shoulder and stalked out of the room. She took her time getting to Lane's office, not really looking forward to a visit with the lotion-obsessed man. Her reservations only grew as she saw Derek, the school security guard, standing outside Lane's door. Great.

"Derek," she greeted, casually saluting as she entered the guidance office. Much to her dismay, but not really her surprise, the Suits — that is, Detectives Finley and Gordon – were there. Finley, Suit #1, was seated in a chair facing the "patient couch," his gray hair in perfect order, stroking a chin that rivaled Jay Leno's. Gordon, much younger and less professional, was swinging in Lane's famous chair, rubbing lotion on his hands and wrists. Lane was seated at his desk, doing the same. There was a faint smell of oranges in the air.

"Have a seat, Jade," Lane said, gesturing toward the couch. She dropped into it discourteously, dropping her bag to the floor. "Now, you've met Detective Finley and Detective Gordon."

"I sure have," Jade smiled sarcastically at the Suits.

"We just wanted to ask you a few questions," Detective Finley began, "about what happened to your father. We're trying to figure out who did this to him."

"Sorry," Jade shrugged. "I can't help you. I'm a minor. And there is no parent or guardian present."

"We've already spoken to your mother," Lane put in, "and she agreed to allow the detectives to ask you their questions under my supervision."

"Well then," Jade's mocking smile appeared once again. "By all means. Ask away."

"Thank you," said Finley. "Now then, walk us through your day last Wednesday."

"I woke up. I went to school. I did school stuff. I went home."

"And you were home alone that evening?"

"My mom was working late."

"What did you do while you were home?"

"Um… Played the piano, did some writing, finished some school work."

"I see," Detective Finley and his partner exchanged a glance. "Did you have access to a car?"

"Yeah," Jade said apprehensively. "I drove myself home. But I didn't go anywhere."

"What type of cellphone do you use?" Detective Gordon asked suddenly.

"A PearPhone XT…"

"So it has a GPS tracker," Gordon said. Jade nodded. "So if I looked up your phone's GPS, it would tell me that you were home on Wednesday night?"

"Well," Jade paused, her brow un-furrowing suddenly in realization. "No. I'd shut off my phone."

"Why did you do that?" Finley asked.

"Cat Valentine was annoying me. I wanted some time alone."

"Cat Valentine was annoying you, and you wanted some time alone."

"That's what I just said." Jade was getting annoyed.

"So you didn't send any text messages or make any phone calls on Wednesday night," Finley confirmed.

Jade shook her head.

"What's your point?" she asked, though she was 99% sure she already knew.

"Well, Miss West," Finley leaned back in the chair. "You don't have an alibi."

Jade stared.

"So you guys really do think that I tried to kill my father?"

"We're still gathering information about the incident," Gordon tried to placate her.

Jade let out a frustrated groan somewhere between a lioness and a Wookiee.

"You told us you don't have a good relationship with your father," Detective Gordon pushed. "Do you deny that?"

"No. But you can't actually believe I would try to beat him to death!"

"And why not?" Gordon responded. Finley shot him a warning look.

"Because it's stupid!" Jade yelled. "It's the most cliché option in the book. Just because I'm the scary girl who doesn't lie to people about how awful they are, and happens to have a couple 'daddy issues,' I'm your number one suspect. No wonder the criminal justice system is so whacked, with idiots like you walking around trying to solve crime!"

"Jade," Lane admonished weakly.

"Don't _scold_ me!" Jade said shrilly, thoroughly offended. "I—"

She stopped as a low _boop-boop_ sounded. Gordon pulled his phone out of a pocket and read the message.

"Chuck," he said, getting his partner's attention. "Look at this."

Finley accepted the phone, peering at whatever was on the screen. He looked from Gordon to Jade to Lane and finally said "excuse us for a moment," and led Gordon into the hall.

"Jade," Lane said, attempting to be comforting, "I think it would be a good idea if you spoke to your mom about getting a lawyer."

"No shit, Sherlock."

Finley and Gordon stepped back into Lane's office and settled themselves in their previous seats.

"Jade," Finley finally said. She looked at him blankly. "You have colored streaks in your hair."

Jade didn't really think that deserved a response. She simply blinked in feigned apathy.

"A colored synthetic hair was found at the crime scene."

Apathy suddenly became a little harder to feign. Her eyes widened.

"What color were the streaks in your hair last Wednesday?"

Jade looked at the coffee table in front of her, thinking back as hard as she could, trying to remember. She shook her head. She didn't know.

"You don't remember?" Finley verified.

"No." She smirked suddenly. "Ask Sinjin. He'll probably know."

"Sinjin Van Cleef?" Gordon asked. "We've already spoken to him. He was not in school on Wednesday."

"Maybe he did it then."

Gordon chuckled, opening his mouth to say something but Finley cut him off.

"Do you think Sinjin is capable of killing your father?" It was a serious question.

"Not without landing himself in the hospital too," Jade admitted.

Finley smiled ever so slightly. "We came to a similar conclusion."

"Awesome. So can I leave now?"

"Just another minute, please. Would any of your friends reliably remember what color your hair was on Wednesday?"

"I have no friends," Jade declared bluntly.

This seemed to strike Finley and Gordon as being quite surprising.

"So," Gordon began, flipping open a little notebook, "Beck Oliver, Caterina Valentine, Andre Harris, Robert Shapiro, and Victoria Vega are not your friends?"

"Nope."

"Cat described you as her _best_ friend," Finley said.

"I may be her best friend, but she's not mine. She's more of a pet, if anything."

"And your ex-boyfriend, Beck? You don't consider him a friend?"

"Ex is the operative word there," Jade said with a roll of her eyes. "And before you continue going down the list there, I _hate_ Vega, Shapiro is an absolute _moron_, and Andre is okay."

"Andre is okay," Finley repeated.

"Yeah," Jade said with a shrug. "But he's Beck's best friend, so that makes him an idiot."

"I see." Finley and Gordon shared a glance.

"Can I go now?" Jade asked abruptly.

"Yes," Finley said. "Have a nice day."

Jade's eyes widened in a sudden inexplicable rage at that sentence, and she stormed out of the room. There was still a few minutes before the final bell rang, so Jade managed to sneak out and head home while the halls were still empty. She had a few hours to herself before her mother came home, so she popped _The Scissoring_ into her laptop and lounged on her bed as the movie played. Jade spun the special scissors Cat had gotten her as a Secret Santa gift around her fingers while she watched, and suddenly felt weighed down with guilt. She hoped her declaration of having no friends wouldn't get back to the bouncy redhead, but she figured it probably would.

Linda didn't get home until late, having stopped by the hospital to visit her comatose ex, presumably while Celia was out walking Yapper. Jade was already in bed, scribbling in a notebook, when her mom poked her head past the door.

"Hi sweetie, how was your day?"

"Fine," Jade capped her pen. "Actually, it really wasn't. We need a lawyer. Like, now."

"Okay," Linda nodded. "I'll call—" she stopped. "I'll look up someone to call…"

"It's so stupid," Jade huffed angrily. "The one time we actually need a lawyer, the only defense attorney who would work for free is in a freaking _coma_!"

Jade's father had told her (when the West family was still happy) that she would never have to worry about a court defense while he was around. She saw him once a month, so that counted as 'around,' right?

"I'll ask tomorrow, see if anyone at work knows someone."

"No," Jade countermanded forcefully. "We don't need anyone knowing that we might be in legal trouble. Look online and try to find someone who isn't a complete moron."

"Alright. Goodnight, honey." Linda kissed her daughter on the head, then left the room with a sigh.

Jade slept late into Tuesday morning, which didn't really matter since she had a study hall first period anyway. She rolled out of bed – feeling fully rested for the first time in a while – dressed, and was just finishing her makeup when someone knocked on the front door. Figuring it was a delivery, and that she'd just toss it on the couch on her way out, Jade grabbed her bag and thundered down the stairs. She stopped in her tracks, taken aback when she whipped open the front door to find the Suits.

"What are you doing here?" she asked irritatedly.

"Jade West," Gordon said. "You're under arrest for the attempted murder of Richard West. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford one, one will be provided for you. Do you understand the rights I have just read to you?"

_That's me in the corner_

_That's me in the spotlight_


	5. If You Can Keep a Secret

5\. If You Can Keep a Secret.

"Jade, do you understand what's happening?" Finley was asking as Jade stood in a daze in her doorway.

There was a beat.

"No," she answered honestly, finally looking up at the two detectives.

"You are the number one suspect in your father's attempted murder, and we have a responsibility to take you into custody and refer the case to the District Attorney's office for trial."

"Trial?" Jade's head snapped to Finley.

"Yes, it's—"

"I know what it is! You mean, you really think I did this? I could go to prison?"

Finley sighed. "It's possible, yes. But you are a minor so _if_ your case is accepted by the DA and _if_ you are found guilty by a jury, your sentence could be shortened."

"To what?"

"I couldn't say."

Jade looked to Gordon for an answer.

"Five years in a juvenile facility? Four?" Gordon guessed with a shrug.

"_Five years_?"

"If you're convicted," Finley tried to placate her while giving Gordon a look. "Now, Jade, we have to go down to the police station. Your mother is going to meet us there with a lawyer when she can."

"Do I have a choice?" Jade had never wanted her mother so much in her life.

"Not really."

"Do I have to ride in the back of the cruiser like a criminal?"

Finley nodded grimly. So Jade rode in the backseat of the police car like a criminal all the way to the station, and was told to wait in a chair by Finley's desk in the bullpen. She sank low into the chair, tugging loose strands of hair out and depositing them on the floor. It occurred to her that she could have done just that at the Nozu parking lot and that evidence could have landed her here. She crossed her arms and legs and sank lower. Another juvenile delinquent walked by, smirking at her flirtatiously. Jade shot him her patented Death Glare and he looked away.

Gordon sat down at his desk across from Finley's while Jade waited for her mother. Nearly an hour had past.

"Hey," Jade said, sitting up. "You're a cop."

"I am an officer of the law, yes," Gordon said proudly.

"So you must have coffee here."

Gordon chuckled patronizingly. "Would you like some?"

"Now."

He was still chuckling as he went to retrieve the coffee and Jade's mother ran in with a young man Jade didn't know. He had a happy, open face, but looked only a few years older than Jade herself.

"Jade, oh sweetie, I'm so sorry this is happening!" Linda hugged her child tightly.

"It's not your fault, Mom. Who is this?"

"I'm Adam Hornstock." He shook Jade's hand. "I'm here to defend your case."

"Why?" Jade asked her mom.

"It's my job…" Adam said.

"No," Jade rolled her eyes, turning back to her mother. "Why _him_?"

"Oh! I work with his mother. I told Carol I was having some legal troubles, and she directed me to Adam!"

"And Carol just happened to forget that Adam is two days out of law school?"

"A year!" Adam defended. Jade groaned. Gordon returned with coffee (that probably saved Adam's life) and Finley met them from another direction before leading the group to an interview room.

"Jade, you have been charged with second-degree attempted murder. It basically means that we know you didn't plan to hit your father. It's what we call colloquially a 'crime of passion.'"

"Yeah. Okay."

"We're going to bring in our Assistant District Attorney, and she's going to ask you a few questions, alright?"

"Do I have a choice?"

"Not really."

"Great."

The ADA was named Andrea Chase. She was young, blonde, and a Stanford graduate (and probably _summa cum laude_ or something). She asked much the same questions as the police had the previous day: Where were you on Wednesday night? What color streaks were in your hair? Would you want to hurt your father? And Jade answered them all same as before, wishing Adam would be more like a TV lawyer and tell her to stop answering questions. It ended soon enough, though, and Jade had a court date on the books.

After the ADA had left there was a knock on the door. Gordon opened it to reveal a small Chinese-American man in a light gray suit.

"Doctor Huang," Finley greeted warmly. He stood and offered his chair to the psychiatrist. Huang accepted and smiled at Jade as he took a seat. Finley led Gordon out of the room, the door thudding shut behind them.

"You must be Jade. My name is George." He reached out a hand which Jade ignored.

"And you're a shrink," Jade guessed.

"I am a psychiatrist, yes. Is it alright if we speak for a little while?"

Jade shrugged, knowing from Adam's obvious nodding in her direction that she needed to cooperate.

"Jade, what is your relationship like with your father?"

"Really? _That's_ the question you start with?"

Huang nodded, unfazed.

"I don't see him very often, and I like it that way. He hates my guts."

"What do you do when you do see him?"

"We go out to dinner and he pretends to be interested in my life."

"What makes you believe that he dislikes you?"

"He thinks my dreams are stupid, because he doesn't 'get' creative people. No matter what I do, he doesn't understand."

"How do you try to make him understand?"

"I invite him to my performances. Things I wrote, things I'm starring in…."

"How does he react to your performances?"

"Is this really relevant to anything?" Jade said with an angry huff.

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Right now you're helping me to understand your relationship with your father."

"So you can decide whether or not I tried to kill him."

"That's for a jury to decide. I am only here to make a recommendation to the judge concerning your behavior."

"Meaning…?"

"I am going to tell the judge whether or not I think you should be allowed to go home in between your arraignment and your trial."

"So what you're saying is," Jade said, leaning forward, "if I pretend I'm happy about this situation I won't go to prison. Yet."

"I need you to tell the truth."

"Okay. _If_ my dad shows up to my performances, he tells me they're _fine_."

"And that bothers you."

"Yes! I'm one of the best in my school!"

"At what?"

"_Everything_. Writing, singing, acting. I was _the_ best until—" Jade cut herself off and took a sip of coffee. The tremor in her hand didn't go unnoticed by Doctor Huang.

"Until what?" he asked, not unkindly.

"I'm done talking now," Jade turned to Adam. "Go get my mom. Tell her we're leaving."

"I—"

"_Now_."

Adam scurried out of the room. Huang watched Jade calmly as she downed the rest of her coffee.

"What changed? Why do you no longer consider yourself to be 'the best'?"

Jade stayed quiet stubbornly, uncurling the rim of her paper cup.

"Who took your place?"

"Tori. Vega."

* * *

Jade was on probation until her court date, and was expected to maintain good grades and not commit any crimes. Not that she had.

The car ride home was quiet, the arraignment scheduled for tomorrow, and Jade turned her phone back on. Four missed calls from Beck within the past few hours, and an unsettling text from Cat:

_Jadey, were you arrested?_

Against her better judgment, Jade called Beck back.

"Did you get arrested?" was his form of greeting.

"How does everyone know?" Jade was panicking.

"That girl Angie who lives across the street from you posted a video of you getting into a police car on the Slap. So you were really arrested?"

"Of course. Didn't you see the video?" Jade responded dryly.

"Lane had it taken down." _Thank god._ "I heard about it from Cat."

"Why are you calling me about it?"

"I wanted to see how you were doing. You have a lawyer and everything, right?"

"Duh. He's kind of stupid though, and the police seem to think they have a really good case," Jade admitted quietly, leaning away from her mother, who was driving.

"That's…worrying."

"Tell me about it. I could end up in prison for five years!"

"Five years!"

"Minimum."

There was a pause.

"How do I tell Cat about this?" Jade asked.

"Let me. You have enough to worry about."

"Thank you, Beck," Jade said quietly, and her mother turned to her with a look of surprise, unaware Jade and Beck were even on speaking terms.

_The crashing tide can't hide a guilty girl_

_With jealous hearts that start with gloss and curls_


	6. Things Sure Ain't the Same

6\. Things Sure Ain't The Same.

_"Richard West, Los Angeles defense attorney known for defending notorious brothers Lucas and Malcolm Moore, was attacked last Wednesday night in a parking lot outside of popular Japanese restaurant Nozu and remains in critical condition. Police have currently declined to comment, but our source at the station tells us that the prime suspect is West's teenage daughter Jade West, a student at prestigious performing arts high school Hollywood Arts. More information will be revealed later this evening as our Julianne Woodson interviews another Hollywood Arts student who knew Jade West before her downward spiral into crime."_

Fuming, Jade skipped forward in the video Trina had posted on the Slap until she saw the older Vega sister's face.

"_I think we all saw this coming_," Trina was telling the interviewer with false sympathy. "_It was only a matter of time before Jade actually killed someone. She put me in the hospital after sabotaging a play I was starring in! I was playing a beautiful alien woman, and my flying equipment was vandalized! I fell from fifty feet above the stage and landed_—"

Jade skipped forward again.

"_So Trina_," the reporter was saying, "_What are others at Hollywood Arts saying about Jade?"_

_ "__Of course everyone agrees with the police. No one is surprised."_

_ "__What about Jade's friends?"_

_ "__They expected her to murder someone just as much as everyone else, probably more."_

The video cut back to the news anchor. Jade didn't wait to hear what the reporter was going to say. She slammed her laptop shut and tossed it to the end of her bed. _She didn't kill anyone._

When she arrived home after being arrested she had ordered her mother to leave her alone and took the stairs two at a time to her bedroom. Now it was just after six, and Jade had been holed up in her room for a couple of hours. The video Trina had posted wasn't the only news report about Mr. West's injuries, but it was the only one that mentioned Jade by name.

Jade sighed, rubbing her temples as she sat back against her pillows. She let her mind wander into thoughts of what was happening at school without her. Even the people she secretly considered her closest friends had accepted the notion that she was a violent criminal. The sound of knuckles tapping against her door brought her out of her reverie.

"Go away, Mom," Jade called.

The knocking continued. Jade hauled herself out of bed and yanked open the door.

"What in God's name are you doing here?" Jade asked her visitor, her voice low with anger.

"You got arrested," Beck responded, twisting his fingers awkwardly.

"We already talked about this," she said calmly.

"Are you okay?"

"_Would you stop asking me that_?" Jade suddenly shouted.

"Can I come in?" Beck asked with a sigh.

"No."

"_Jade, be nice_!" Linda's voice called from downstairs. Jade moved aside and allowed her ex-boyfriend into her room with a superficial smile. Then she stepped into the hall and hollered down to her mother:

"_Normal parents don't allow ex-boyfriends in their daughters' rooms_!"

She saw Beck smirking slightly, sitting on the floor against her bed, when she reentered.

"Why are you here?" she asked again. She sounded weary.

"I told you. I want to know if you're okay. You didn't sound okay on the phone, and then the video with Trina came out and…."

"I'm fine," she protested as she sat beside him, close enough that it wouldn't seem weird but far enough away that he couldn't touch her. "Really. I'm awesome. The police are idiots for arresting me, my lawyer's an idiot for thinking he can defend me, and everyone at school's an idiot for thinking I did this."

"I don't think you did this, Jade."

"Yes you do, everyone does."

"No," Beck shook his head, "I don't."

Jade lolled her head to look at him skeptically.

"I promise."

"Yeah," Jade said, chuckling darkly, "because your promises mean so much."

Beck looked at his knees, chewing on his lip.

Jade tried to keep the conversation going, trying _not_ to think of the time when it was so easy to speak to him. "So, what's going on with everyone at school?"

"Everything's kind of jacked up, honestly."

"Oh…. How's Cat?"

"She's…confused. I don't think she really gets what's going on. Everyone else does, though."

"And what are they saying…?" she asked uncertainly. Did she really want to know?

"Robbie and Andre don't know what to think. I guess they've got more trust in the police than in you… I'm the opposite," he looked her dead in the eye. "I _know_ you didn't do this."

"Thanks," Jade whispered. Her lower lip wobbled and tears came to her eyes from the intensity of his stare, but they faded when he looked away.

"You're welcome," he smiled faintly.

"What about Vega?" Jade asked, turning her head away from Beck again. He sighed.

"Her dad's a cop. She believes the police."

Jade snorted.

"But she's absolutely heartbroken at the idea that you're guilty."

"_Riiight_."

"No, really. She gets all quiet whenever the subject is brought up, and Cat gets all jumpy, so Robbie gets jumpy, and… We're just kind of a mess without you."

"You were a mess _with_ me."

"Maybe. But we were happy."

"We were never happy."

"Yes we were!" Beck said with sudden force, as if everything depended on Jade knowing this, understanding this. Neither was quite sure who "_we_" referred to though. Beck didn't stay much longer.

* * *

Jade got a phone call on Friday afternoon. She was surprised to see it was Beck again. Why couldn't he leave her alone? First about the video of her getting arrested, then showing up at her house about _another_ video. If this phone call referred to any video condemning Jade, she was hanging up and blocking his number.

"What?" she answered sharply.

"I got subpoenaed."

"Excuse me?"

"I'm a witness for the prosecution at your trial."

"_What_? What did you tell the police?!"

"…what do you mean?"

"Well, you must have told them something that they thought would help the prosecution!"

Beck was silent for a minute, just breathing steadily.

"I can't think of anything I could've said to make them think that." He was starting to sound panicked, so unlike his usual self.

Jade sighed frustratedly.

"You know I would get out of this if I could. But they send you to jail if you ignore a subpoena…. Hey listen I've got another call, can I get you back?"

"Don't bother."

Jade tossed her PearPhone onto her bed and looked around her room for something to destroy. Nothing suitable caught her eye. Scissors in hand, she thundered down the stairs, eyes peeled. She settled for a magazine from the living room, leaving a trail of pieces of paper celebrities on her way back upstairs. Her phone was vibrating amongst her pillows. She snatched it up.

"I thought I told you not to bother."

"Tori got a summons too."

"_Are you kidding me_?"

"I wish."

"So I'm going to have to sit there and listen to her talk shit about me in court?!"

"I don't think your being uncomfortable with what she has to say is really the key issue here!"

"Then enlighten me."

"She's going to _have_ shit to say! You've screwed her over enough times that—"

"Oh, _I'm_ the one screwing people over?"

"Yes! I swear I can't even count the amount of times you've done something awful to her. On her _first day_ of school you poured coffee on her head—"

"That was years ago!"

"And yet you still can't let that stage kiss go."

"It wasn't _about_ the stage kiss! It was _about_ her jumping in and fucking us up!"

"We fucked ourselves up!"

"But it didn't start until _she_ came to Hollywood Arts!"

"Oh please. We wouldn't have lasted much longer anyway."

"So you admit you hated me."

"I didn't say that—"

"You kind of did." Her voice got quieter. _He couldn't stand her. Oh God he hated her all along._

"No. I didn't. I couldn't. I _don't_."

There was a pause.

"We could've done better, I know. But I still don't think it was Tori's fault."

"I don't want to talk about this."

"But you're the one who…!" Beck paused. "Okay."

He was humoring her. Always a bad sign.

"What are you going to tell the prosecutor?"

"You know I can't tell you that."

"I know," she sighed.

"Also I have no idea."

Jade didn't answer that.

"Maybe this'll work out," Beck tried to sound hopeful. Jade snorted. "No, really. Maybe when your lawyer questions me it'll help you."

"It won't. My lawyer's an idiot and the prosecutor is…_not_."

"Well, listen. Everything Tori says will be helpful because it's the truth. She's not trying to get you arrested. She's as messed up about this as everyone else."

"Sure."

"I'm serious, Jade."

"Okay." She pulled the PearPhone away from her ear and pressed _End Call_.

It was getting dark outside. Jade used the last remaining hours of the afternoon to finish her destruction of the celebrity magazine, spending extra time disfiguring a picture of Alyssa Vaughn. Just before six, vehicle lights shone through the curtains, briefly illuminating the dim room. Moments later, Jade heard her mother calling urgently from the floor below.

"What's going on?" Jade asked as she stepped off the staircase. The curtains and shades had been closed. As Jade moved to peek out a window she was dragged away by her mother.

"No! Stay back."

Jade yanked her arm away from her mother's grip and proceeded to move the curtain aside an inch, peering out into the street. A white van was parked outside, the green and yellow logo of _LA News_ visible on the door. People were scrambling around, setting up lights and a camera as a woman in a blue blazer fluffed her hair, holding a microphone. "Oh, God. Can they do this?"

"I don't know! I asked the police to withhold your name," Linda replied, staying far back from the windows. "Adam's on his way over."

"Well, he's not going to get here before six. Its five fifty-nine. Turn on the TV," Jade stepped back from the window, making sure the curtains covered the glass. Linda, standing in front of the couch, clutched the remote as the television flared to life. Jade stayed near the window but out of sight, watching the newscasters through the tiny gap at the edge of one of the curtains, listening to her mother change channels. The reporter outside was settling herself in front of the camera, reading over a paper last-minute. It was one minute after six.

"They're introducing the story," Linda said. Jade walked hesitantly toward the TV. Neither West woman could relax enough to sit. The anchor on TV was greeting the audience sternly.

"We begin this evening," he was saying, "with the story of a teenage girl on trial for attempting to murder her father. Seventeen-year-old Jade West was arrested earlier this week for nearly beating her father to death in a parking lot outside Japanese restaurant Nozu. Police say the relationship between father and daughter had always been strained, and fellow students at Hollywood Arts High School cite Jade as a violent, angry girl. More from _LA News_ correspondent Cora Welch."

The TV scene shifted to the young journalist standing in front of the West residence. All the curtains were closed, but Jade could see her own silhouette in the window on screen. She sat down on the couch, and silhouette-Jade was cut in half. She ducked her head down until she was hidden behind the couch.

"We're here at Jade West's residence, where the young criminal lives with her mother. Trial is set to begin early next week, and, if she is convicted, this teenager could spend the rest of her life behind bars."

Cora was replaced onscreen by a screenshot from Jade's profile video from the Slap as the newscaster kept speaking. Though she was a few years younger then, Jade still had the same dissatisfied expression in the picture. What the rest of the people watching the news didn't know is that _she was talking about what she loved in that video_. Acting, singing, writing, dancing. Another Slap photo was laid on top of the first, then another, then another. She looked the same in all of them— unhappy. Unimpressed. Unfriendly.

So of course that meant she was violent.

_Hard truths bite my heels_

_These roots have no home_

_The only way I know you love me_

_Is when you leave me alone_

_Please just leave me alone_


	7. Disinfect the Scene

7\. Disinfect the Scene.

"…a teenager losing her sight of the line between good and evil. Jade West is allegedly under house arrest for the duration of her trial, and will not be — Hey!"

Cora Welch was cut short as Adam, briefcase in hand, barged in front of her.

"My name is Adam Hornstock, I am the Wests' attorney, and I am asking you to leave their property." His voice was muffled on the TV; he wasn't close to the microphone.

"We're not _on_ their property!" the reporter retorted, smirking. "Look, we're on the street. City property."

Jade heard tires and jumped up from the couch to peek out the window. Conveniently, a police cruiser, lights off, pulled up at that moment. The Suits got out, Finley from the driver's side, and approached the commotion.

"Miss, please turn off your camera." Jade looked back to the TV, seeing her silhouette again.

"No!" Cora said, actually stomping her foot. "You're infringing on my first amendment rights!"

"You're infringing on the rights of these people, who requested their privacy. Turn off the camera."

The cameraman, who was apparently more intelligent than the woman he was recording, turned off the camera.

Jade and Linda appeared in the doorway. They stayed there until Cora Welch had packed up her van and driven away.

"What the hell!" Jade exclaimed angrily as she stalked toward the Suits. "Who told them where we live?"

"I asked you to keep her name a secret!" Linda said.

"Someone must have released it by mistake,"Finley explained calmly.

"_Mistake_?" Jade shouted. "No. They said they had a source in the p—"

"The reporters might've followed you home from the courthouse after your arraignment," Gordon interrupted Jade, addressing Linda.

"Is there any way we can prevent them from coming back?" Linda asked.

"Just call us if they do," Finley said, but not until after a moment's hesitation.

There was a newsprint story about the commotion in the Saturday morning paper.

"Mom?"

"Yes sweetie?" Linda answered as she put peanut butter on her toast.

"I can't go to school on Monday."

Linda put down the butter knife. "You can't fall behind just because of some rumors."

"These aren't just rumors Mom! The news is maligning me and people are going to believe it. I'm not going back to school until after the trial. Unless I'm in prison, of course."

"Don't talk like that." Linda had tears in her eyes all of a sudden. "Of course you can skip school. I'll call Lane and have him send over your work so you don't fall behind."

"Thank you," Jade whispered in a wash of relief.

The trial was set to start in a week, so Lane was nothing but understanding, especially after the social media blitzkrieg against Jade's reputation began. He would collect her work from her teachers to be submitted late. Jade was still too angry to be thankful that someone was actually being helpful during this hellscape of a time.

The trial started one short week later. It took that entire week for the pool of potential jurors to be wheedled down. Adam and Andrea questioned each potential individually, and many were dismissed. Finally the final twelve were selected, with five alternates. Though it was somewhat of a relief to have the selection hearings over with, Jade felt confined and suffocated when she entered the courtroom on the first day. It was smaller than she expected it to be, not quite the grand mahogany rooms of the TV shows. She looked at the jury as she sat next to Adam at a table facing the judge's bench. Her mother sat behind her. There were too many people amongst the dozen jurors that looked like her father or his wife, or even students and teachers at HA. All she could see were the faces of the people who had given up on her. She looked at her hands in her lap as the prosecutor moved forward toward the jury to begin her opening statement. Then she thought to herself _no. No I am not going to sit here like a pansy and for the court sketch artists to put in the paper. I am not defeated yet._ So she sat up straight, lifted her chin, pulled back her shoulders, and watched the prosecutor with as much fire in her eyes as she could muster.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. I am Assistant District Attorney Andrea Chase, and I am the lead prosecutor for this case. You are here today to hear evidence in the trial of Miss Jade West, who stands accused of the attempted murder of her father Richard West. All _you_ need to do is decide if the defendant took a direct step to kill Richard West. The defense is going to tell you that the defendant is simply a misunderstood teenager from a broken home, that Richard West deserved to be attacked. The defense is going to try to make you feel sorry for Jade West, to try to convince you that this heinous crime was justified. But that is not how the law works. The law does not care about circumstances. The law does not care about sad stories. The defendant did not care about the law, but I do. I am going to show you that the defendant is a violent teenager with a history of aggressive behavior toward not only her father, but fellow students as well. Some of those students will tell their stories of how Jade West has frightened or hurt them, either mentally or physically. There is even more direct evidence that the defendant committed this crime, including a witness to the brutal act itself."

Jade inhaled sharply. _There was an eye-witness?_

"It is my job to uphold the law," the prosecutor continued, "and it this courtroom I will show you that the defendant broke the law, and you will serve justice. Thank you."

Andrea Chase sat back down. Adam glanced at Jade as he stood to face the jury. He gave her an encouraging smile which she tried to return, but only managed a grimace.

"Good morning ladies and gentlemen of the jury, my name is Adam Hornstock. It is my privilege to represent Miss West in the case before you today. You have heard the prosecutor present what she will attempt to prove, but she has not given you all of the facts. She has conveniently left out that this supposed eye-witness to the crime was a woman with a standing history of hatred toward my client, and that she could not identify my client by name, only that the perpetrator had dark hair and was wearing black. Any number of people matching that description could have been in the area that night. The evidence that the police have discovered is circumstantial, and does not directly implicate my client in this crime. There is reasonable doubt, and for that reason I ask you to listen to _all_ of the evidence, keep an open mind, and return a verdict of "not guilty." Don't end the life of a young woman with so much potential. Thank you."

Richard's injuries were catalogued first.

Cuts and contusions.

A broken ulna.

A fractured tibia.

Cranial swelling.

The pictures were hard to look at. Celia wept quietly.

Evidence the police found was presented next.

A green synthetic hair. _Were her streaks green that day_?

A size nine partial shoe print. _Anyone could have those shoes._

An eyewitness.

Mrs. Lee was the first called to the stand, as she was the eyewitness and had called for an ambulance during the attack. _Alleged eyewitness,_ Jade reminded herself.

"Mrs. Lee, you own the restaurant Nozu, correct?" Andrea Chase confirmed.

"Yes, that's correct."

"Have you ever seen this man before?" the prosecutor held up a picture of Richard West looking dapper and disappointed.

"Yes."

"When did you see him?"

Mrs. Lee gave the date in question, the Wednesday a few weeks before.

"What was your interaction with this man?"

"I seated him and the woman he was with." _The woman he was with? _Jade glanced at Adam.

"Is that all?"

"No. I found him in the parking lot as I was closing the restaurant. Someone was attacking him. I called an ambulance."

"Did you see the attacker?"

"I didn't see their face."

"Could you tell if it was a man or a woman?"

"No, but they had dark hair and were wearing all black."

"Height?"

"Taller than average."

"Could you tell their ethnicity?"

"Probably white. Pale."

"Do you see anyone in this courtroom who matches that description?"

"Yes."

"Point to them, please."

Mrs. Lee straightened her finger toward Jade, eyes glinting.

"Let the record show that Mrs. Lee indicated the defendant. Mrs. Lee, do you know the defendant?"

Jade ran a hand through her hair self-consciously.

"Yes," Mrs. Lee did not sound pleased.

"How do you know her?"

"I put up money for a play she had written," Mrs. Lee spat.

"That was very nice of you. What was the problem?"

"She was very ungrateful." (Jade rolled her eyes) "She left my daughter hanging from the ceiling!"

"So you would not consider yourself to be a fan of Jade West."

"Not. At. All. She is rude, cruel, and unappreciative of my assistance."

"Thank you Mrs. Lee. No further questions."

Adam, as he stood and buttoned his jacket, said, "Mrs. Lee, you testified that Richard West was with a woman at your restaurant. Who was the woman Mr. West was with? Did you recognize her?"

"I didn't, no."

"What did she look like?"

"She was young, maybe thirty, she had short curly brown hair."

Out of the corner of her eye, Jade saw someone stiffen. Celia. Her father's _blonde_ wife.

"Mrs. Lee, could _that_ have been the woman who attacked Richard West?"

"No, she was wearing a red dress. The _criminal_ was wearing black."

"But this woman had brown hair, which would fit your description of the attacker. She could easily have changed clothes between the time you saw her in the restaurant and when you saw the attack. Yes?"

"I suppose. This woman was short though."

"I see. Mrs. Lee, is there anyone else in this courtroom who matches your description of the assailant? Caucasian, dark hair, taller than average."

Mrs. Lee didn't answer.

"Could anyone fitting these qualities please stand?"

Reluctantly, Jade stood. Her mother stood. Six other women in the courtroom stood.

"Thank you. Now, let's take one of those descriptors away. It was dark out; disregard skin color and hair color."

Eight more people stood, including two on the jury.

"Now let's disregard height, as the perpetrator could have been wearing height-changing shoes."

Celia stood.

Nearly a third of the courtroom was standing.

"Mrs. Lee, all of these people match your description, with or without a wig or temporary hair dye or height-changing shoes. Is this true?"

"Yes." Mrs. Lee sounded defeated.

"Thank you."

_The fear has gripped me but here I go_


	8. Put Up a Front

8\. Put up a Front.

"The People call Victoria Vega to the stand."

Tori moved nervously toward the front of the courtroom, doing her best not to look at Jade. As she sat in the witness booth, she glanced at the pale girl at the defendant's table. Jade seemed determined not to make eye contact. The court clerk approached Tori. The clerk was short and a little round and smiled supportively.

"You do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?" she said, looking Tori in the eye.

"Y-yes," Tori replied, chewing on her lip. "I do."

"Now Tori, you go to school with Jade West, is that correct?" Andrea asked as she approached the witness stand.

Tori nodded.

"Your answers must be spoken for the record," Andrea reminded her.

"Oh, sorry. Yes I go to school with Jade."

"And would you consider her to be your friend?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"She told—_tells_ me all the time that we aren't friends."

"Why is that?"

"She thought I was trying to steal her boyfriend…."

"And were you?"

"Objection." Adam stood. "Relevance?"

Andrea withdrew the question.

"Tori, even though you weren't friends, is Jade nice to you? Does she treat you well?"

"No. She's…kind of…horrible…to me…."

"Can you give us an example?"

"Um…" Tori hesitated. "On my first day at school she poured someone's coffee on my head."

"Why would she do such a thing?"

"She was upset."

"Because…?"

"She thought I was trying to steal her boyfriend." Tori chuckled nervously, then looked guilty.

"I see. So," Andrea looked to the jury as she spoke, "it's safe to say that Jade lashes out when she is angry?"

"I guess so."

"'Yes' or 'no' answers only please."

"Yes."

"Has Jade lashed out at you? Since the incident with the coffee, I mean."

"Well… Yes."

"Can you elaborate?"

"There have been…times…where she's…gotten upset."

"Any times where she has hurt you physically?"

"Not _really_."

Andrea waited, watching Tori expectantly.

"There was this one time she…lunged at me. But she didn't really _hurt_ me."

"And why did she 'lunge' at you?"

"She thought I was trying to steal her boyfriend," Tori said again, sounding exasperated with herself.

Andrea nodded and faced the jury.

"So, when she is displeased Jade West lashes out with violence. Now Tori, have you ever met Richard West?"

"Sort of."

"Can you explain, please?"

"Well, we were never formally introduced. He came to a play I was helping Jade with."

"And what sort of insight did you get into their relationship?"

"Jade thought her father hated her, but…."

"Yes?"

"Well he thought her play was 'excellent.'" Tori looked at her hands.

"He thought her play was excellent. Yet she continued to believe that he was disappointed in her?"

"I think so. I mean, yes."

"Have her violent tendencies diminished at all in the time you have known her?"

"Not really, no."

"Has she ever _really_ hurt someone? Physically, I mean."

"…yes."

"Explain, please."

"A boy at school said she hit him with her car. His leg was broken."

"And you believe that this boy was telling the truth."

"I don't see why he would lie about it."

"What happened that caused Jade West to run down a high schooler with her car?"

"Objection," Adam said again. "Your Honor, this is not the crime of which my client stands accused."

The judge looked to the prosecutor.

"Establishing behavioral past," Andrea Chase explained.

"Overruled," Judge Elizabeth Banter told Adam. Andrea gestured for Tori to continue as Adam reseated himself.

"He, the boy, was running a game show where he asked questions to couples and Jade and her boyfriend were voted the Worst Couple. Jade blamed him."

"I see. No further questions."

Adam stood as Andrea sat, and approached Tori while he buttoned his jacket again.

"Hi Tori. Now, were there any witnesses to the breaking of this boy's leg?"

"No."

"Did Jade ever admit to hurting him?"

"No."

"But everyone believed this boy."

"Yes."

"I understand there was another incident in which some people blamed my client for someone else's injuries. It was your sister who was hurt, I believe."

"Yes. The rigging for her flying harness was damaged and she fell. And then a ranch house fell on her… A ranch house _set_, I mean. Like, for a play."

"How did the blame get shifted toward Jade?"

"She was in the theater before the play started, and she doesn't really like my sister. B-but no one ever admitted to doing anything, and there wasn't any proof, so the guidance counselor came to the conclusion that nobody tampered with the equipment and it was all an accident."

"So there was no evidence that pointed to Jade. She was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?"

"I guess so."

"Now, the prosecution is very eager to paint my client as a heartless miscreant. But I am going to ask you this: what has Jade West done _for_ you?"

"She… She gave up her place performing at the Platinum Music Awards so I could do it," Tori said quietly after a moment's silence. "It was a really big opportunity."

"Nothing further."

* * *

"You do solemnly state that the testimony you may give in the cause now pending before this court shall be the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God."

"Yes."

"Mr. Oliver, you dated Jade West for how many years?"

"Three."

"And in that time, did she ever show any tendency toward violence?"

"Not…_criminally_."

"But she _did_ exhibit violent behavior."

"Sort of."

"'Yes' or 'no.'"

"…yes."

"Now, you and Jade are no longer dating. Is that correct?"

"Yes."

"Why did you break up?"

"We…were fighting a lot," Beck seemed to be unable to look the prosecutor in the eye. He ran a hand through his hair, eyes on the floor.

"You were tired of arguing."

"Y-yes."

"You were tired of her temper."

"Yeah," Beck shrugged a shoulder slightly. He didn't sound certain.

"Can you give us an example of when her temper got out of control?"

"Um… She threw a rock at me once. But I wasn't hurt."

"Why did she throw a rock at you?"

"She thought I was cheating on her."

"So, because of a _rumor_ that she believed, Jade West attacked you."

"I wouldn't say she _atta—_"

"Yes or no."

"Yes."

"Have you ever known anyone to be frightened of Jade West?"

"…yes."

"Who?"

"Kids at school," Beck shrugged.

"Do you know Richard West?"

"Yes."

"What did you observe about his relationship with his daughter?"

"It's…tense."

"How did Jade feel about her father?"

"She says she hates him."

"Did _he_ hate _her_, as she seems to think?"

"Sometimes it seemed like it."

"Yes or no."

"I don't know," Beck said sharply.

A pause.

"How was Jade treated by her father?"

"He kind of ignored her."

"So there was no evidence of him mistreating her that you ever saw."

"No…not that I ever _saw_…." Beck closed his eyes for a minute, looking ashamed. He made eye contact with Jade, but her angry eyes darted away quickly. Jade pressed her lips together until she thought her teeth might draw blood.

"Thank you, Mr. Oliver. No further questions."

The attorneys made somewhat passive-aggressive eye contact as they passed each other— Andrea toward the plaintiff table, Adam to the witness stand.

"Were you ever frightened of Jade?" Adam asked Beck.

"No," Beck answered immediately. There was something in his eyes. Affection?

"So would you say the people she lashed out at deserved what they got?"

"Some of them," Beck smiled slightly. It faded quickly though as he looked to her. Eyes down, Jade brought a hand to her forehead, rubbing at the tension.

"Did she lash out at her father?"

"…not really, no. I mean, not directly."

"Can you explain that, please?"

"She just…she liked to do what he hated."

"Such as?"

"Where she goes to school, what she wears, what she says, who she's friends with. Who she dates."

"But Jade invites her father to plays she's written."

"Yeah…?"

"Why do you think she does that?"

"Objection," Andrea stood. "This boy is not qualified to make such a psychological assessment."

Everyone looked to the judge, who pursed her lips in thought for a quick moment.

"Sustained. Move on, Mr. Hornstock."

"Beck, what makes Jade different?"

"I… What?"

"What makes Jade different?" Adam enunciated. "From other teenage girls, I mean."

Beck opened his mouth to speak, then closed it again. He looked back to Adam, puzzled.

"Do other teenage girls get jealous?"

"Yes."

"Do other teenage girls act out, rebel against their parents?"

"Yes."

"So what you're saying is, Jade West is _just like_ _every other_ teenage girl," Adam leaned forward with a knowing smile as Beck hesitated. "And I mean that in the best possible way."

"Then yes."

"And the average teenage girl, no matter how much she says she hates her parents, does not try to kill them," Adam said to the jury. "Now Beck, why were you at Nozu on the night in question?"

Jade sat bolt upright. _Beck was at Nozu?_

"I, uh, I was getting sushi."

"Alone?"

"No. Well, yes. I was waiting for someone but she never showed." _She_.

"What time did you leave, approximately?"

"Nine-thirty?"

"The restaurant closes at ten, yes?"

"I think so."

"Thank you, Beck. Nothing further."

As Beck stepped down from the witness stand, he glanced at Jade, who finally allowed eye contact. He tried to smile, which made her look away. Somehow she felt betrayed.

_Yeah it's all alright  
I guess it's all alright  
I got nothing left inside of my chest  
But it's all alright_


	9. Several Interests

9\. Several Interests

Apparently George Huang had been observing Jade over the course of the investigation, so the fact that he had only spoken with her for a few minutes at the police station a few weeks ago did nothing to diminish his ability to form a professional opinion — and express it.

"So Dr. Huang," Andrea continued her questioning of the psychiatrist. "You have been observing this case from the beginning, and you have had the opportunity to speak with the defendant, is that right?"

"Yes," Huang said calmly, his hands folded in his lap as he sat in the witness stand.

"And did you notice any particular tendencies towards violence in the defendant?"

"She is certainly apt to become emotional." (Jade scoffed.)

"Could you expand upon that please?"

"Jade is harboring a lot of anger toward a lot of people. Old friends, teachers and students at school…."

"Her father?"

"Yes, her father."

"Thank you, Doctor," Andrea turned to Adam. "Your witness."

"Doctor Huang," Adam said, "how did Jade describe her relationship with her father?"

"She said that she doesn't see him very often, and she likes it that way."

"She believes her father hates her?"

"Yes. She says he doesn't understand her."

"A common feeling amongst teenagers, yes?"

"Certainly."

"Why, in your professional opinion, does Jade continue to invite her father to her performances, even though he apparently 'doesn't get creative people?'"

"Jade wants her father to see her accomplishments. She wants him to be proud of her."

Jade felt her heart sinking, her cheeks burning, and tears pricking her eyes all at once. She could feel the eyes of the entire courtroom upon her, so she straightened up and stared ahead, her eyes boring into the wall behind the judge. It didn't matter what this idiot shrink thought. She wasn't sick, she wasn't broken, and she wouldn't break now. Not in front of the jury. Not in front of Tori Vega. Not in front of Beck.

"Do people who want their fathers to be proud of them try to kill their fathers?" Adam asked frankly.

"I can't say definitively either way."

"Thank you, Dr Huang. Nothing further." Adam went back to his seat. Jade didn't look at him. She didn't want her father to be _proud_ of her, she just wanted him to _tolerate_ her.

"You are the guidance counselor at Hollywood Arts, correct?"

"Yes, that's correct."

"And you've known Jade West for her entire school career?"

"I have."

"How many times have you spoken with her due to disciplinary infractions?"

"Several."

"Do you feel you've made progress with her? Has her behavior improved over the years?"

"No. She's never really cared about what I have to say, and she's often made a point to tell me so."

"Is she capable of forming relationships at all?"

"Yes."

"But not capable of sustaining them. She herself told the police she had no friends," Andrea said coldly. Jade closed her eyes angrily as a little gasp was emitted from the gallery, knowing it was Tori and that Tori would tell Cat.

"I—" Lane started to say something.

"Nothing further," Andrea cut him off with a dead smile.

Jade kept her eyes closed as Adam greeted Lane.

"Have you had students _worse_ than Jade?" he asked.

"Absolutely."

"What were the 'disciplinary infractions' Jade committed?"

"Mostly just talking back to teachers, yelling at people."

"Any violence?"

"…nothing concrete."

"Could you explain, please?"

"A girl was injured during a play, and Jade was suspected of sabotaging some equipment," Lane said, rubbing lotion from a small bottle into his hands. Nervous habit.

"But Jade was not the only suspect, is that correct?"

"There were five students who were at the theater before the play began who could have sabotaged the rigging."

"And there was never any proof that any of them did it, as I understand."

"Right."

"Lane, do you know Richard West?"

"Not at all, no."

"Have you ever spoken to Jade about him?"

"She's never spoken back," Lane responded, making Jade roll her eyes at the defense table.

"What does that tell you?"

"That she doesn't trust me."

"Does she trust anyone with information about her father?"

"As far as I know, no."

Most days when court ended Jade did her best to avoid speaking to anyone. Adam usually ushered her out quickly, and she rode home behind the tinted windows of her mother's car (Linda taking as many detours as she could possibly think of, lest anyone follow). Today however, Adam excused himself into the bathroom and Jade was left alone in the crowded lobby, waiting for her mother to find her. She'd never been more tired.

"No friends, huh?" A girl's voice accused. "Then what are we?"

Beck and Tori stood in front of her, both looking as angry as Jade had ever seen.

"I'm not supposed to talk to you," she said, quietly but defiantly.

"How could you say something like that? After all we've done for you!"

"Jade, all I've ever done is be nice to you!" Tori agreed shrilly. Jade didn't look her in the eye.

"How could you say something like that to the police?" Beck repeated. "What's Cat gonna think?"

"You're gonna tell Cat?"

"Yes!" Tori screeched. "She cares about you so much, and you say _that_ about her!"

"I said it _for_ Cat!" Jade snapped suddenly. "I don't want the police talking to her."

"Why?" her ex-boyfriend asked severely. He suddenly looked suspicious and it sparked fear in Jade's heart.

Linda appeared near Jade's left, and Jade pushed her way toward her mother without saying another word. Before she was out of earshot, however, she heard Tori ask a question.

"Does Cat _know_ something?"

It was late when Jade's phone rang. She was already sitting in bed, freshly showered. She wasn't doing anything, just looking around her room, letting her eyes rest on every small possession and every memory they held. She knew that no matter what the jury ruled, nothing would be the same again. Whether she went to prison or not, she'd be alone.

She picked up her phone.

"Jaaadeeey?" A high-pitched voice called.

"Hi Cat."

"Jadey, Tori and Beck keep asking me if I know anything about what happened to your dad, but I don't know anything and Tori said that you said that you don't have any friends which isn't true 'cause I'm your friend and you're my friend and we're best friends, right?"

Jade allowed herself a moment to puzzle that sentence out.

"Yes, Cat. Best friends."

"Jadey, you know I don't know anything about what happened to your dad."

"I know."

"Then why do they keep asking me?"

"They think _I_ hurt my dad, Cat."

The redhead was silent for a moment in shock.

"But you wouldn't do anything like that!"

"No one else seems to believe that."

"But… But I just _know_…I mean…." Cat spluttered, her anger akin to that of a child. "I need to talk to them! They need to understand that _you didn't do this_!"

"Cat, it doesn't matter what they think."

"Yes it does! It matters so much! Tori was supposed to be your friend! She said she was your friend and she did friend things and now she's not!"

"Cat—"

"And _Beck_! Beck was supposed to _love_ you! He _said_ he did! And now he just _decides_ that he _didn't_ and _abandons _you! And he's been saying _all along_ that he won't believe you're guilty unless _you tell him you are_!" Cat made an angry noise in the back of her throat. "Jadey, I'll call you back."

She hung up before Jade could get another word in. While she was sitting, dumbfounded, on her bed, her mother knocked softly and poked her head in.

"Jade? Your father's awake."

_Please don't put your face into your hands, we could be friends_


	10. Stranded

10\. Stranded.

Richard was finally conscious. He didn't know who had attacked him, he never saw her face. All he could remember was the voice of the woman screaming that she hated him. He had no idea who she could have been. Celia continued to play the part of weeping wife, though there was a new hardness in her eyes that had been there since Mrs. Lee testified that Richard had been out with a brunette. Jade didn't know who she was or why they were at Nozu, only that her father had betrayed yet another woman. She wasn't allowed to see him at the hospital, not that she would have agreed to anyway. He still wasn't well enough to appear in court, but his testimony didn't mean much since he didn't see his attacker. The only thing his appearance would have affected is the sympathy of the jury. Celia did not appear in court either, citing a need to be with her hospitalized husband, and Detective Finley was called away on an important case. That left only three witnesses on the list.

"Detective Gordon, you have been investigating the assault of Richard West from the beginning. Is that correct?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"How did you meet the defendant, Jade West?"

"My partner and I went to Hollywood Arts to inform Jade of her father's injuries."

"And what were the first words you heard her say?"

"'I swear to God I will brutally murder the next person who interrupts my audition.' We interrupted her audition, apparently. I don't know what would have happened if someone came in after us," Gordon chuckled darkly.

"So the first words you heard Jade West say were a threat of violence?"

"Yes."

"Did you think it was a joke?"

"I thought it was an exaggeration."

"But she still became your chief suspect. Was that due to that threat or her demeanor?"

"It had nothing to do with any of that. We followed the evidence, and the evidence led us to the defendant. She had the motive, means, and opportunity to try to kill her father."

"What evidence specifically led you to her?"

"There was a synthetic hair found in the Nozu parking lot. Green. We were informed that Jade often wore colored streaks in her hair, as we saw ourselves when we met her."

"Anything else?"

"The eyewitness description matched Jade to a T, and her attitude toward her father clinched the case for us."

"Thank you, Detective. Nothing further."

Adam let the silence settle before he stood.

"Detective Gordon, how long have you been on the job?"

"Three years."

"And how many of those years were at a desk job?"

"A few months," Gordon shrugged nonchalantly.

"Really? Because," Adam flipped open a folder he was holding, "your record shows ten months in the field, and then just over a year at a desk job at the precinct. Why were you taken out of the field, Detective?"

"Um… To gain experience."

"At a desk," Adam narrowed his eyes and raised his eyebrows skeptically.

"Yes."

"Well, it actually says here that you were put on desk duty because of a violation of a suspect's rights."

"Your Honor," Andrea cut in, "is there a question here?"

The judge looked at Adam pointedly.

"Detective," Adam continued, "could you please explain how you violated the rights of this particular suspect? I have the report if you need to refresh your memory."

"I…." Gordon hesitated. "I allowed my…_zeal_ to get the better of me, which led to…the arrest of a person who had already been cleared as a suspect."

"Why did you arrest this person?"

"I just… I had a hunch he was guilty."

"And was he?"

"No."

"I see," Adam closed the folder and observed Gordon. "Detective Gordon, did you have a 'hunch' that Jade West was guilty?"

"Yes," Gordon confessed. "But it was backed up by hard evidence."

"Right," Adam nodded, a bit facetiously. "Nothing further."

Gordon was the last witness for the prosecution.

Adam stood and addressed the judge.

"Your Honor, the defense calls Mr. Erwin Sikowitz to the stand."

A nearly bald man shot up from his seat in the audience. Every single one of the many articles of clothing he wore was of a different color and pattern, which raised the eyebrows of many people in the courtroom. Not Jade, though. What struck Jade was the fact that her favorite teacher was wearing _shoes_.

"Mr. Sikowitz, you are a teacher at Hollywood Arts?" Adam asked as soon as the strange witness was settled in the stand.

"Yes! I teach improvisation and method acting with a few spontaneous lessons in the science of the majestic coconut!"

"I see," Adam looked amused at this answer, while everyone else in the courtroom (minus Jade) looked a bit concerned. It was certainly not an answer anyone expected. "And you know Jade West."

"Ahhh, yes. Jade. As I told her once, I savor her bitterness like a sweet, rancid cream sauce."

"So you are fond of Jade?"

"For all of the black she wears, Jade is one of the most colorful people I have ever known."

Jade didn't think she'd ever been so complimented in her life. For the first time in a long time, it was hard to contain her smile.

"Have you known Jade to be a violent person?"

"She is…passionate. She fights for what she wants, what she thinks she deserves. And, for as long as I've known her, she's deserved what she's fought for. Except…." Sikowitz stopped for a moment, peering into the distance thoughtfully.

"Y-yes?" Adam looked suddenly nervous.

"Once… Once she was cast as an understudy, and Jade believed that the lead role went to the wrong person. She did her best to make sure that Tori stayed at the hospital on opening night. She was such a gank about it that I ended up playing the role myself!" He chuckled. "Sikowitz as Steamboat Suzie!"

"I… No further questions."

Adam plopped down into his chair on Jade's right.

"He conveniently forgot to mention that little incident when we went over his testimony," Adam whispered to his client, the heel of his hand pressing against his forehead. Jade couldn't bring herself to answer.

Andrea stood at the table for the prosecution.

"The People have no questions for this witness, Your Honor."

Sikowitz loped back to his seat in the gallery, entirely unaware of the damage he may have done.

"The defense calls Linda West to the stand," Adam announced a moment later. He turned to face the people sitting in the pews behind the counsel tables, his eyes searching. No one stood. Jade twisted around in her seat, craning her neck to see. Her mother had brought her to court today. She'd been sitting in the row behind the defendant's table at every court session since the beginning. Jade stood beside Adam, scanning the people, trying not to let her panic show. She thought she saw someone familiar toward the back, but whoever it was bent forward and out of sight before she could be sure.

"Linda West?" Adam asked again.

"Where is she?" Jade whispered, agitated, more to herself than to Adam. She dropped herself back in her chair. Her mother _knew_ today was her scheduled court date as a witness. She _knew_.

"Your Honor, I'm afraid it seems that Linda West was unable to attend court today," Adam said, facing the judge.

"Then she is held in contempt of this court, and a warrant will be issued for her arrest."

"What?" Jade said. "No, she just made a mistake! Don't arrest her!"

"Miss West, if and when your mother appears in court, or gives a valid reason for not appearing, the charges will be dropped," Justice Banter said sharply.

Jade looked at the table.

"Until then," the judge continued, "you may call your next witness, Counselor."

"The defense rests," Adam stated with a defeated sigh.

"What?!" Jade shouted. "No, no, the defense does _not_ rest!"

"I'm sorry, Jade," her attorney whispered sadly.

"You're giving up?"

"Counselor," Banter looked to Andrea Chase. "You may present rebuttal witnesses."

"The People rest, Your Honor," the prosecutor replied.

"Then you may present your closing argument."

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury. In my opening statement, I mentioned that I would show that the defendant is a violent teenager with a history of aggression. I have proven this, not only through psychological assessments from professionals, but incidents of violence recounted firsthand. We have established the following facts beyond a reasonable doubt: one, that Jade West harbors intense animosity toward her father; two, that Jade West is psychologically and physically capable of causing bodily harm; and three, that Jade West had the means, the motive, and the opportunity to assault her father. We the People ask you to reject the defense theories of this case. The law does not care about sad stories or broken homes. Justice is blind, so I am asking you, the servants of justice, to find the defendant guilty as charged. Thank you."

Adam didn't look at Jade when he stood.

"In the case that the prosecution has presented to you, there is insufficient proof to convict. Here in California, there are two things that the prosecution must prove for a valid attempted murder conviction: that the defendant took at least one direct but ineffective step towards killing another person and that the defendant intended to kill that person. The prosecution has not done this in this courtroom. It is the burden of the prosecuting attorney to prove that the defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. They have not met that burden. Remember that the life of this young woman is in your hands. We would ask you to render the only verdict that is fair: not guilty."

Jade didn't move from her chair as the rest of the people in the courtroom were filing out. _I'm going to prison I'm going to prison I'm going to prison I'm going to prison –_

Adam shuffled his papers around and shoved them in his briefcase.

"I'm sorry, Jade. It was a mistake to take this case. I wasn't ready. And, don't worry, I'm not going to require a fee for this."

"Right. Because _that's_ my biggest worry right now," Jade stood, knocking her chair backward, and shoved her arms into her jacket. Her shoes echoed in the empty courtroom as she stalked down the aisle and out of sight. As the door swung shut behind her, a hand grabbed her arm.

"Jade."

"Beck!" Jade gasped. "Jesus Christ! You know, just because nothing ever startles _you_ doesn't mean that you can _do that_ to people!"

"I didn't mean to scare you."

"Why are you here?" she asked, calmed down a bit. "I mean, have you been here all day?"

"Yeah. I skipped school. I wanted to see what was going to happen," Beck replied. "What happened with your mom? Can I drive you home?"

"No," Jade shrugged a shoulder, pulling out her phone and ignoring his first question. "I'll just call a cab."

He stopped her, placing a hand over hers. She recoiled and jerked away at his familiar touch.

"No, really. I'll take you home."

"Fine," she started walking toward the lobby, and he fell into step easily beside her.

"So… What happens now? Legally, I mean."

"I don't know," Jade pulled her shoulders to her ears for a moment. "I guess I'll try and get a better lawyer and appeal the conviction."

"You haven't been convicted yet," he reminded her.

"Yeah. Yet."

"Listen," he said awkwardly, fiddling with his keys in his hands. "I shouldn't've spoken to you like that yesterday. I didn't know your reasoning for telling the police you had no friends."

"Was that an apology…?" Jade asked, half in cunning, half in shock.

"Yes."

"Well, you're missing one crucial word…"

"I'm _sorry_," Beck said.

"I forgive you," Jade smiled very faintly.

"Really?" Beck looked surprised, his eyebrows raised, holding the courthouse door open for her.

"Yeah," she shrugged. "Since I'm assuming Cat talked to you last night and told you to apologize."

"Cat talked to me, yes. Yelled at me, more like."

"She was pretty pissed when I talked to her."

"She hates me."

Jade glanced at Beck sidelong, an eyebrow raised.

"Cat doesn't hate _anyone_."

"Except me," he insisted as they stepped off the front stairs of the court. "She's really mad at me for…you know, what happened with us."

"Oh."

"Jade—" Beck said pleadingly.

"No. Not now."

"We have to talk about this eventually! Why is it that you _always—_"

"Please don't jump down my throat," Jade interrupted quietly. "In case you didn't notice what happened in there, _the trial is over_. And the defense failed. You'll have plenty of time to repair your relationship with Cat while I'm in prison."

"That's not the relationship I'm worried about," he muttered as he walked to the driver's side of the truck. Jade decided to ignore him, since she couldn't be quite sure that's what he said. She held up the silence as he started the engine, eventually breaking the awkwardness by fiddling with the stereo. A little part of her sighed in relief when she discovered he hadn't changed the radio stations she'd preset into his car so long ago. She let the music take the place of the absent conversation.

_And how can I make new again what rusts every time it rains?_

_And the rain it comes and floods our lungs_

_We're just orphans in a tidal wave's wake_


	11. History

11\. History

Somehow the car ride calmed Jade down. She was able to relax, leaning against the headrest, quietly allowing her subconscious to believe that it was just like old times — accidentally staying out past curfew, Beck driving her home to a favorite late-night DJ. But when the car pulled into her driveway, and Jade saw lights on in her house, she was suddenly fuming again. Her mother was home. She thanked Beck with a nod of her head, and slammed the car door as hard as she could as he opened his mouth to speak. He rolled down his window as she crossed in front of the car, glowing in the headlights.

"Jade, wait."

"What?" she snapped.

"It's gonna be okay."

She just stared at him, trying to gauge his sincerity.

"I mean it. It's all gonna work out."

"Yeah. If 'working out' means 'Jade goes to prison.'"

"It's gonna be okay. 'Cause you're innocent. I know you are."

Jade just sighed, shaking her head.

"You don't know it," she asserted in a low voice.

"Yeah I do. Call it… a gut feeling."

"That's stupid," she said bluntly, crossing her arms.

"Maybe," Beck shrugged, looking at the steering wheel. "But it's the truth."

"Bye, Beck."

"Bye…."

Jade began to lose her anger and her nerve as she climbed the front steps. She used her key to slowly unlock the door, and let it swing open in front of her. Her mother stepped into Jade's line of sight, clutching a book.

"Hi sweetie," she said nervously.

"Where were you?" Jade asked tiredly. She'd lost count of the amount of times she'd asked this of a parent.

"I just…" Linda held up the hardcover, giggling sheepishly. "I just got so wrapped up in this book. It's fantastic, you should rea—"

"Bullshit."

"Jade," Linda's fake smile disappeared. "Honey…"

"Why. Weren't. You. There." Jade asked through gritted teeth.

"I forgot," Linda tried again. Jade shook her head — she wasn't buying it.

"You're going to have to tell the truth, since you're being arrested in contempt of court anyway."

"Jade, sweetie," Linda laid the book aside, coming forward to rest her hands on her daughter's shoulders. "I knew I couldn't help you. Nothing I could say on the stand would make this any better."

"So you just gave up," Jade flung her mother's hands away, trying to fight the sobs that were filling up her throat.

"No, honey, I just—"

"No. You gave up. You gave up on me." _Just like Dad. Just like Beck_.

"No, I didn't… I'm really sorry, sweetie."

"Sorry?!" Jade's voice broke. "You're '_sorry_'? That doesn't _fix this_!"

"What will?" Linda asked quietly, pleadingly.

"Nothing. There is absolutely nothing you can say that can make me forgive you, and you can't make this better."

Jade paid no attention to whatever Linda said after that. She fled up the stairs, stumbling over the top step, and slammed her bedroom door. She leaned against the door, focusing unblinkingly at nothing. She focused all of her substantial will power on containing her tears, and for once in her life it failed. She didn't know what to do, who to call, how to fix this colossal mess laid out before her. An old instinct told her to call Beck, to cry over the phone to him like she had in the past. She had picked up her phone before she knew it, then tossed it aside onto the rug and sobbed into her hands, feeling her makeup smear as she rubbed her eyes.

"Jade?" Linda was knocking on the door.

"Go away!" Jade bellowed with the lungs of a singer. Linda tried to open the door anyway, but Jade leaned all her weight against it.

"I have nothing to say to you!" she yelled.

"I'm so sorry sweetie," Linda pleaded. "I should have been there. I just couldn't do it!"

"Well now the trial is over and I'm going to prison because you 'couldn't do it'!"

"You're not going to prison. You're innocent!"

"Who cares? The jury certainly doesn't. Adam doesn't! Why should you?"

"I care because I'm your mom," Linda said quietly. "I would do anything for you."

Jade sniffled. "You wouldn't testify like you were supposed to."

"I got scared. Even moms get scared."

Jade rolled her eyes.

"Why should you be scared? All you had to do was sit up there and tell them how great I am and how I would never try to kill my dad! But even you don't believe that! You think I did it too. You think I tried to kill him because he hated my play and wants to take me out of school."

"Of course I don't think you did it! Why would you even say that?"

"_Why wouldn't you testify_?"

"Adam is a good lawyer. He doesn't need my testimony."

"Mom, the trial is over. The jury is deliberating."

"Oh."

"You missed your chance to help me, so just go away."

"I – alright."

Jade heard footsteps fading down the steps, and her tears started up again. Her phone was ringing from its place on the rug. It had been buzzing since she started yelling. Crawling forward, she saw it was, of course, nosy nosy Beck.

"What do you want now?" Jade was still sniffling, obviously full of tears.

"How did things go with your mom?"

"How do you think?"

"Not so good. Do you want me to come over?"

"Why are you acting like my boyfriend? You're not. We're not even friends. I have no friends, remember?"

"I want to be your friend. Or else I wouldn't be bugging you so much," Beck chuckled awkwardly.

"How about you be my friend once I'm in prison."

"You're not going to prison, Jade. I promise."

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Beck sounded unsure.

"It's really nice to know you can split yourself into the twelve different people who are currently deciding my fate."

Beck sighed. "I just meant I have faith in you. You wouldn't do this even if you could."

"You don't think I'm capable of beating my father to death?"

"No. And I also know that you don't have a tire iron in your car."

Jade was taken aback. "What?"

"Remember when you got that flat? I had to walk all the way back to the RV to get mine to fix it. Yours was missing."

"That was last year! You remember that?"

"Of course. It was a long walk, and I was worried about you on the side of the road by yourself."

"I did have to scare off a guy," Jade snickered.

"I didn't know that. Don't tell me things like that, it scares me."

"You don't get scared."

"I dunno, court is pretty scary. I can't imagine what you feel like sitting up there."

Jade didn't answer.

"Hey, why didn't you testify for yourself?"

"Adam didn't think it was a good idea. He's a terrible lawyer, but he was probably right about that one. I don't exactly make good first impressions."

"I don't think that's true."

"Shut up. You _know_ it's true."

Beck stayed quiet, which was probably for his own good. The silence led Jade back into her misery and fear. Somehow Beck seemed to sense this.

"It's going to be okay, Jade. I promise."

_Boy, you and your promises._

_If your goal was to love, you scored an epic miss_

_Now you'll just have memories_


	12. The Cage is Full

12\. The Cage is Full

Jade and Beck hung up shortly after. With a deep breath, Jade braved opening her door and listened downstairs to what her mother was doing. The TV was on, muted voices reaching the top of the stairs. Deciding she should let go of her animosity toward her one (mostly) steadfast ally, Jade silently crept down the carpeted steps and moved to the front room where the TV was. Linda looked up but didn't say anything, her face full of hope. Jade sat beside her on the couch, not too close, and watched the evening news alongside her mother. Tonight the news was thankfully absent of her case. She took another deep breath and was about to speak when Linda beat her to it.

"Would you like some hot chocolate?"

Jade was taken aback. "Yes. That'd be great."

"I'll be right back." Linda crossed in front of the TV and disappeared into the kitchen. Jade was left on her own watching a confusing commercial for some perfume.

Then the window behind her shattered into a million pieces.

Jade let out a ragged scream, covering her head. A rock bigger than her fist flew past her head, missing by inches, and shattered the TV screen. Glass was everywhere; she could feel it down the back of her shirt. Linda sprinted back into the living room and screamed too for good measure.

"Call the cops!" Jade shouted. As Linda ran to find her phone, Jade stood carefully, shaking the glass from her clothes and, being careful to avoid the shards on the rug, stepped away from the mess. She turned to look at the window, the pane now nothing but jagged edges. A small black sedan was driving away down on the street. Could it have been carrying the culprit? There was no way to be sure.

"Detective Finley is on his way over," Linda returned to the room and stepped toward her daughter. "Are you okay?"

"Careful, there's glass!"

"Oh honey I'm so sorry," Linda was shaking her head, looking ashamed.

"They're going to take you to jail, you know," Jade snapped, fully understanding the change in topic.

"I'll do whatever it takes."

They were silent on the subject after that, waiting stoically for Detective Finley to arrive. He was prompt, arriving sooner than Jade could have hoped.

"Holy cow!" He said when Linda let him into the house. "That's quite a mess! Vandalism and reckless endangerment for sure. Is anyone hurt?"

Jade admitted she had a few scrapes from the glass, but there was no real harm done – to a human anyway. The Wests' living room was in shambles, and their sense of safety out the window, as it were.

"Now don't worry," Finley placated a little condescendingly, "we'll find out who did this."

"At least you know it wasn't me this time," Jade quipped darkly. She told the detective about the car she saw driving away which was next to nothing as evidence but was all she had to offer.

"We'll look into it. You couldn't see a plate or anything?"

Jade shook her head. It had been too far away.

"Can you think of anyone who would have wanted to do this?"

"Tons. Everyone at school hates me since you and your squad ruined my reputation with this sham trial."

"Jade!" Linda admonished in a whisper.

"No, it's okay Mrs. West. I can't imagine the position your daughter is in. And to be perfectly honest, I hope I never have to. In any case, we'll send someone to fix your window in the morning. Do you have a tarp or something we can tape up for the night?"

Detective Finley was kind enough to help the West women tape up the tarp, but it did little to make them feel safe, from burglars or rocks or ex-boyfriend promises.

"Wait!" Jade stopped Finley before he could leave. "Look."

There was a note taped to the rock with masking tape, which was peeling at the ends. In black marker, all it said was _Psycho!_. Finley picked up the rock with a handkerchief, wrapping it up and stowing it in his pocket. _Who carries a handkerchief?_

"We'll analyze this back at the station, see if the handwriting is a man or a woman's and match it with people involved in the case. May I take a handwriting sample from each of you?"

"No!" Jade protested. "We were both in the house!"

"You may have written the note and then paid someone to throw it into the house."

"We didn't."

"Alright, I'll subpoena your handwriting if it becomes necessary. Speaking of subpoenas," Finley's gaze turned to Mrs. West.

"I'll speak to the judge in the morning, I promise."

"Alright then. Goodnight Jade, Mrs. West."

Finley left into the darkening evening, leaving a sour feeling in the room. The tarp flapped unnervingly in the breeze, and Jade suddenly forgave her mother whatever it was that prevented her from testifying today.

Angie across the street crossed Jade's mind for a moment. Could she have seen something? She was certainly nosy enough. Nosier even than Beck.

"Mom, I'll be right back," Jade was pulling her red boots onto her feet. She was still dressed in her court clothes. Jogging across the street (after looking both ways of course), she pounded her fist on Angie's door. A woman who looked strikingly like Angie but about forty years too old answered the door.

"Uh, yes?"

"Someone just threw a rock through our living room window," Jade declared unceremoniously. "Did you see anything?"

"No."

"Are you absolutely sure?"

"Yes."

"Is there anyone else I could ask?"

"No, I'm home alone this evening. Jade, I think you should go back home."

Realizing how she must look: covered in tear stains, makeup smears, and glass, Jade silently agreed and walked back across the street and up the hill to her own house.

"Anything?" Linda asked.

"Nothing."

Jade's phone rang. It was Tori.

"Vega? What do you want?" Jade asked in astonishment.

"I just saw the video on the Slap! Are you okay?"

"What do you mean 'am I okay'? What video?"

"Angie posted a video of someone throwing a rock at your house! Are you okay?"

"What a stalker! Why does she keep doing this?" Jade grumbled.

"I don't know, but—" Jade's phone beeped, indicating another call.

"Hold on, I have another call." Looking at the ID and seeing it was Beck, Jade returned to Tori.

"It's just Beck. What were you gonna say?"

"Beck is calling you? Answer it!"

"No. He's just going to say the same things you are. You can tell him I'm _fine_. Just a few scratches."

"Scratches?!"

"Yeah, from the glass."

"Oh my God."

"I was lucky it didn't hit me in the head. But did you see who did it?"

"No it was too far away and they were wearing a hood. Jade, are you safe staying there? Do you want to come stay at my house?"

"No I one hundred percent do not want to come stay at your house; are you kidding? You're a witness for the prosecution at my goddamn trial."

"Oh. Right."

"Yeah. _Right_."

"Sorry. I…probably shouldn't be talking to you."

"Neither should Beck but that hasn't stopped him from basically harassing me."

"He calls you a lot?"

"And shows up at my door."

"Isn't that a good thing?"

"Why would it be?"

"Don't you still, you know, _like_ him?"

"I'm hanging up now and I hate you." Jade hung up. There was a text from Beck on her phone: _Are you okay?! _She didn't answer.

_Everything is different_

_The second time around_


	13. Such a Sweet Face

13\. Such a Sweet Face

Jade was determined to find out who threw the rock at her window. It must be someone connected with the trial, or someone who hated her for allegedly trying to kill her father. She knew the cops wouldn't take this seriously enough to actually work on it as a real case, so she did some investigating of her own while waiting for the jury to deliberate. She was basically held captive in her house during that time, so she began by watching Angie's video on the Slap. It was dark, but someone in a hoodie was running up the Wests' front yard toward the living room window and hurled the fist-sized rock through the window. Jade could hear herself scream and it made her feet tingle with blood and her scalp prickle with goosebumps. The hoodie-wearer ran back down to the curb and disappeared offscreen. The sound of a car peeling away was the last few seconds of the video. Jade messaged Angie on the Slap.

JADE: _How did you know to start filming my house? _

Angie answered back almost immediately.

ANGIE: _You tried to kill your dad. Why wouldn't I be filming your house?_

JADE: _You knew about the rock_

ANGIE: _I didn't. I've been recording you trying to get some evidence for the police._

JADE: _So you're a snitch for the cops? I didn't do anything, you stalker!_

ANGIE: _You tried to kill your dad! Everyone knows it!_

JADE: _Well now someone tried to kill me! _Jade was quickly becoming absolutely furious.

ANGIE: _It was probably just someone trying to get back at you_

JADE: _Who?_

JADE: _Answer me!_

__But Angie had logged off. Definitely the real psycho here, Jade determined, but probably not a suspect since she was filming at the time.Jade sighed and watched the video again, turning the brightness up all the way on her laptop. The car was offscreen, but she had seen that evidence for herself. She peered at the person in the hoodie and decided from the shape of the shoulders that it was a man. Not skinny enough to be Sinjin, too tall to be Andre, running in too straight a line to be Sikowitz. The problem was there were too many people who hated her right now. If they knew her dad they would probably adjust their thinking. Not that he deserved it or anything.

Jade spent the rest of the evening watching and re-watching the video, downloading it off the Slap before Lane logged in and reported it. It was deleted by ten that night, but it was up for plenty of time for the Hollywood Arts students to see it and make their opinion: did Jade deserve such an attack? She received a bombardment of messages saying so. Between Trina's interview on the news, the reporter at the curb, and Jade's not being in school, it seemed the entirety of HA believed her to be guilty. But what hard evidence did they have? No, this was a trial of public opinion, and Jade was already convicted.

Angie was quickly becoming a problem. Completely out of the blue, she messaged Jade again.

ANGIE: _Can I have an interview?_

JADE: _Excuse me?_

ANGIE: _I'm making a short film for my film studies class about your fall from grace. I already have some great footage and I want to hear your side of things._

JADE: _My side of things is that I'm innocent. Who threw the rock at my window? I know you set it up._

ANGIE: _Nope. I just have a camera on your house at all times._

This, understandably, disturbed her. Jade logged off and called Detective Finley, who seemed more in charge than his younger partner. She relayed the whole story, trying her best not to beg him to investigate more thoroughly.

"We are investigating as best we can on the little evidence we have, Jade."

"Well investigate more! Someone tried to kill me!"

"We don't know that for sure. It could be that the culprit threw the rock without knowing you were there."

"I told you, there's video. You can see the back of my head."

"Can you email me the video?" Finley asked. "It's excellent evidence."

"Fine." Jade typed in the detective's email address and sent the downloaded video. It took forever to send such a big file and Jade groaned at her computer. Finley waited on the phone with her.

"How are you feeling?" he asked suddenly.

"What?"

"I know this must be a difficult and scary time for you. How are you feeling?"

"Fine."

"Do you feel safe at home?"

"Well someone tried to kill me with a rock, so not really no."

"I've already organized for a police presence outside your house, starting tomorrow. They'll make sure nothing like this happens again."

That _did_ comfort Jade some.

"Ah I've got the file," Finley finally said. "Interesting."

"What's interesting?" Jade leaned forward.

"If I didn't know any better, I would've said it was your mother on the couch. You do look alike, especially from the back as it turns out."

"You think someone tried to hurt my mom?" Jade's heart sank at the prospect. First her dad, now her mom? Was someone trying to orphan her? All of a sudden that police presence couldn't come soon enough.

"Maybe they didn't care who they hurt."

Jade swallowed, trying to quell her fear. "What if they come back?"

"As I said, we're stationing police outside your house twenty-four seven. They won't come back."

"You have to find out who did this."

"We're working on it, Miss West. We're doing our very best."

"Of course you are." Jade hung up. It occurred to her casually that she was always the one to hang up first.

She was held captive in her house while the jury was deciding her fate, so Jade devoted her energy to the rock mystery. Angie was still a suspect. Her mother said she was home alone, and Angie said she had a camera set on Jade's house all the time, so she certainly could have been the driver of the black sedan. The problem was, Jade had never seen a black car in Angie's driveway. They seemed to only own a silver SUV. The black car could have belonged to the rock thrower, who Jade christened Rocky. There were so many variables, so many possibilities, that Jade began to feel unbearably frustrated. Rocky could be anyone. Too many people hated her for what they thought she'd done. So Jade allowed herself to dwell on her belief that everyone hated her, and shut off her phone and internet to prove her own point.

Eventually, though, her loneliness outweighed her loathing and she turned her phone back on, only to find a slew of text messages and missed calls, mostly from Cat, a few from Beck. She listened to the seemingly never-ending series of voicemails from the lively little redhead, most of which consisted of a whiny "_Jaaaaaaaaadeeeeeeeeeyyyyyy"_ followed by a silence in which Cat seemed to expect a response. When that response didn't come, she would hang up and call again. How often Cat had to have called to leave this many messages Jade couldn't fathom, and it comforted her some. In the middle of the fifth day, she called Cat back.

"Hello?"

"Hi Cat, it's Jade."

"Jadeyyyy! Yay! Oh my God, we're all here we're eating lunch—" Cat's voice abruptly sounded far away as Jade was put on speakerphone. "Everyone, say hi to Jade!"

There was a chorus of hesitant half-hearted greetings that felt like a bear trap on Jade's heart.

"Cat," she said irritably, "I didn't call them, I called _you_. Take me off speakerphone."

"Kay kay," Cat's voice was suddenly much closer. "What's up?"

"You saw the video on the Slap, right? The one of somebody throwing a rock at my house?"

"Yeah it was so scary! We all saw it."

"What do you know about Angie?"

"Nothing just that she likes film studies and movies and grape juice and that she's making a short film about you."

"So everyone knows she's maligning me on film?"

"I don't know what 'maligning' means."

Jade sighed. "Everyone knows about her film?"

"Yeah she made a big deal about it while she was going through your locker."

"She went through my locker?!"

"Yeah but I don't know how she got in."

"Ugh, I must have left it unlocked the last day I was in school," Jade grumbled to herself.

"She didn't find anything, she was really annoyed. But we heard some of the stuff she recorded. It's like she's making a documentary of you."

"What is she saying?"

"A lot of stuff. Like how you've always been 'predisposed to crime' but I don't know what 'predisposed' means. She asked to interview us but we all said no. Should I let her interview me?"

"Absolutely not! She might have been the one to throw the rock through my window!"

"Oh that's really scary," Cat said quietly.

"Yeah."

"Jadey are you scared?"

"No of course not," Jade lied. "Hey, I need you to go to all of my teachers and get the homework I missed and bring it to me."

"Ohhhh. Why?"

"Because I'm going to have to graduate high school whether I'm in prison or not."

"But why would you be in prison? You're not the bad guy! Or, girl."

"Cat, just bring me the work."

"Kay kay! Bye Ja— Oh wait, Beck wants to talk to you."

Before Jade could protest, her ex's voice was on the line.

"Jade, are you okay?"

"I thought I told you to stop asking me that."

"I still want to know."

"I'm fine."

"No you're not."

"If you knew that already, then why do you keep asking me?!"

"Will you let me know when the jury is ready to give the verdict? I want to be there."

"No promises."

"Thanks."

_Leave your number on the locker and I'll give you a call_

_Hey shut up, hey shut up, yeah_

_Leave your legacy in gold on the plaques that line the hall_

_Hey shut up, hey shut up, yeah_


	14. What Can I Do?

14\. What Can I Do?

Linda had spoken to the judge and the charges were dropped, but it was too late to submit her testimony in Jade's favor. Jade was furious again, both at her mother and the judge, and went back to the cold shoulder. Jade and her mother avoided each other pretty successfully despite the fact that neither one could really leave the house. When Jade had shut herself in her bedroom, Linda could roam the downstairs freely. When Jade emerged, Linda vanished into the den. It wasn't an entirely comfortable existence, but neither one wanted to address what caused the silence between them. So at the sound of the doorbell and Jade descending the stairs that afternoon, Linda disappeared.

Jade opened the door, a little part of her excited to see Cat, and was immensely disappointed to find Tori Vega alongside the redhead on the doorstep.

"No," was all she said. She tried to slam the door, but both girls outside the house put their hands out to stop it.

"Hi Jadey!" Cat said obliviously.

"Cat, why is _she_ here?"

"Well I don't have a car, so I asked Tori to drive me here, but she doesn't have a driver's license, so Trina drove us!"

"_Trina_?" Jade repeated, irate.

"Don't worry, we told her to wait in the car!" Cat said, as if it was a great comfort.

"Awesome. So now Trina knows where I live," Jade grumbled. She took the thick folder of papers from Cat's hands and tried again to close the door. Tori threw her arm against it before it shut.

"Jade, listen—"

"I'm not going to _listen_!"

"No, I just wanted to apologize for—"

"_I don't need your apology_!" Jade shouted. "And I don't need your pity. Leave me alone."

The door slammed successfully this time. Jade set to work on her homework – anything to take her mind off the jury and prison and the false justice of the world. She already felt imprisoned in her house; she couldn't begin to imagine real juvie, but she thought it would be a little similar. Lonely, uncomfortable, unsafe.

Jade had all of the homework completed by the end of the tenth day. She had just thrown her last textbook aside when her phone started buzzing. It was Adam.

"What?" she greeted.

"I called your mom, but she said the two of you weren't speaking. Is everything okay?"

"What do you want?"

"The jury reached a verdict this afternoon. It'll be announced tomorrow."

"Okay."

"Be at the courthouse by ten."

When she hung up, she hesitated, her finger hovering over the first name in her contacts list. She tilted her head from side to side, weighing the pros and cons. Finally, with a sigh, she called him.

"Jade, what's going on?"

"They're giving the verdict tomorrow."

"What time?"

"Ten."

"I'll be there."

Jade didn't sleep that night. She kept getting sad that this could be her last night in her bedroom, then getting angry at herself for being sentimental. She tossed and turned until one thirty, when she finally dozed off into an unsettled drowse. She was strained and sore when she startled awake again around seven. Giving up on the idea of rest, she rolled out of bed and into the shower, which unfortunately did nothing to ease the tension in her body. She used every product she had in the bathroom, inspecting the ingredients and savoring the smells of each one. When she felt she'd killed enough time (and had run out of products to examine), she wrapped her hair in a towel and her body in a bathrobe and stood in front of her closet. She pulled out item after item of clothing, holding each up to herself in front of a mirror, and throwing it back again. She finally settled on a black dress with black boots — it could very well be her last day to wear black.

She didn't go downstairs until it was nearly nine, dressed to kill (pun intended) and with purple streaks in her hair, as defiant as ever, at least on the outside. Jade pretended her mother didn't exist as she made herself a small breakfast. It was Linda who was forced to break the awkward silence.

"Ready to go, sweetie?"

Jade just nodded, her back turned. She followed her mom out to the car and buckled herself in the passenger side. Her teeth chewed at the corner of her mouth as she tried to control the trembling that had started in her hands. The closer they got to the courthouse, the harder it was to keep her fingers still. By the time Linda parked the car, Jade was shaking all over. It took effort just to keep her teeth from chattering.

"Jade," Linda said softly, putting her hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Sweetie, you know I love you, right?"

Jade nodded jerkily, looking out the passenger window. Linda kissed Jade's head and got out of the car. Jade trailed behind her as they entered the crowded lobby, looking from face to face as she sought Adam. Jade's eye was caught by a head of red velvet cupcake hair. She rushed toward it, leaving her mother behind. The whole gang was there.

"Cat! What are you doing here?" Jade asked worriedly. As she pushed her way through the crowd, she found Cat standing with four familiar faces. She didn't want any of them to see this.

"We came to cheer you on!" Cat said cluelessly. Jade sighed and looked to Beck. Tori stood beside him.

"Why would you bring them here?" she asked.

"They want to be here for you."

"Yeah," Tori agreed brightly. "We're your friends, Jade."

"My _friends_? Yes, because _friends_ testify against their _friends_ and send their _friends_ to prison!"

Thankfully for Tori, Jade was led away at that moment by Adam's hand on her arm. But Jade gazed at them over her shoulder fiercely, and everyone could see the pain burning in her eyes.

After some whispered protests from Tori, Andre, and Robbie (which echoed enough for Jade to hear), the gang ended up sitting behind the defense table, so close that Jade could speak to them if she turned. She didn't turn.

There was a lot of waiting to do as people filed into the courtroom, slowly filling the gallery seats around a certain group of mismatched performing arts students. Jade let her annoyance calm her trembling, sitting straight in her chair, head held high. Finally, _finally_, the gallery was filled, the judge sat at the bench, and the jury filed in.

"Has the jury reached a verdict?" Justice Banter asked. _Obviously they have or we wouldn't be here_.

"We have, Your Honor," the jury foreman declared pompously.

"Will the defendant please rise?"

Jade stood shakily, smoothing her dress, wide eyes on the jury.

"How does the jury find?" Banter turned back to the foreman.

"On the sole count of attempted murder, we find the defendant, Jade W—"

"_Wait_!"

All heads turned to see who had jumped up and stepped into the aisle. The true culprit looked straight at the judge and spoke the fatal words:

"Jade didn't do it. I did."

_I'm trying to minimize the damage done_

'_Cause there ain't no one like you_


	15. Do Not Scrutinize

15\. Do Not Scrutinize

If Jade West's life was a piece of cloth, the first stitch tore when Tori Vega came to Hollywood Arts and kissed Jade's boyfriend, the second when Jade was first cast as Tori's understudy. Three more were torn after that, one for each consecutive night Beck blew her off to help Tori become a 'risk-taker.' Five more were abruptly cut when Beck declared he wasn't happy with their relationship in front of a television audience (a Northridge audience to boot). The next ten were ripped out one by one each second Beck let her stand outside the Vega's door. Another five tore when he didn't come after her.

The final stitch and the knot that was holding all the sewing together finally broke and everything began to unravel when Jade's mother stepped forward in the courtroom.

"I did it. I attacked Richard," Linda choked out through her tears. "But I wasn't trying to kill him, I swear! I just…"

She broke down, crouching to the floor and sobbing into her hands. Jade found that she couldn't move, still standing and waiting for the jury's verdict. She suddenly felt very cold, and the shaking came back at full force. She stayed standing, staring wide-eyed at her mother while the judge pounded the gavel, calling for order. Detective Gordon was helping Linda to her feet, but Jade couldn't hear a word he said over the ringing that was suddenly overwhelming her ears. She thought she heard someone calling her name, but she couldn't be sure. It wasn't until Linda was taken out of the courtroom by Finley, Adam rushing after them with his briefcase, that everyone quieted enough for Judge Banter to speak.

"I am declaring a mistrial," the judge said. "Court is adjourned."

She pounded the gavel once more, then escaped the chaos through the door behind the bench. Jade still hadn't moved as the tumultuous crowd scrambled out of the courtroom, following the police officer and the new defendant. Silence settled over the courtroom, and Jade continued to stare at the floor. A warm hand slid onto her bare shoulder and began guiding her down the aisle.

"M-my jacket," Jade mumbled, trying to turn around. "I left my jacket…."

"I've got it," Beck said quietly, giving it to her. She clutched it in her hands like a security blanket as they reached the rest of the group just inside the courtroom door. Cat and Tori were both in tears, while Andre and Robbie just looked ashamed. Jade didn't have anything to say. With the pressure of his hand, Beck ushered her out of the courtroom and down the hall, which seemed to be longer than it had been when they walked into court that morning. She could feel the eyes of court-goers staring at her, or thought she could.

Tori couldn't seem to take the awkward silence, her fidgeting increasing the longer it went on.

"I-it'll be okay," Tori tried to comfort awkwardly. This seemed to bring Jade back from the depths of her mind. She tossed Beck's hand off of her shoulder and turned to face Tori, stopping the group in their tracks.

"Don't speak to me. I told you, I don't need your pity."

"But you need your friends," Tori said gently.

"You are _not_ my friend!" Jade snapped. "I meant what I told the police!"

Jade stalked away from the group, putting her jacket on and angrily flipping her hair out of its collar. When she was outside, however, she stopped, realizing that she had no way of getting home — her mother had the car keys. The courthouse door swung open behind her. A part of Jade perked up, thinking it was someone to tell her it had all been a mistake and Tori Vega was the only one going to prison (for being so annoying). Instead, a woman in a pantsuit clicked down the front stairs in black heels. Jade sighed, shoving her freezing hands in her pockets in an attempt to warm them up. _How can someone be this cold in southern California_? The door opened again, and Jade didn't turn around.

"Jadey?" A little voice that definitely wasn't a lawyer asked while tapping her shoulder. "Do you want to sleep over tonight?"

"No," Jade responded without looking.

"Oh. Will you anyway?"

"…yeah."

"Okay. Beck, she said she'd do it!" Cat called. "Come on, Jadey."

Cat linked her arm through Jade's and they walked down the courthouse steps. Jade could feel Beck following close behind. She always could sense his presence.

"We came in two cars," Cat explained. "So Beck and I are going to drive you back to my place and we can have a sleepover."

Jade nodded distractedly. They were passing her mom's car in the parking lot. Cat dragged Jade along a little faster, tightening the grip on her arm until they reached Beck's truck. Jade sat in the front and clicked her seatbelt into place while Cat clambered into the back.

"We can listen to what you like, Jadey," Cat said as Beck ignited the engine. It was the biggest sacrifice she could think of for the time being.

"I don't care," Jade responded quietly. "Listen to whatever you want."

Beck and Cat looked at Jade, who didn't even notice their stares of shock. Beck put his hand on her arm.

"Do you want to go straight to Cat's house?" he asked. She didn't, but she didn't want to go home either. So Jade nodded.

"Wait," she said suddenly just before Beck pulled out of the parking lot.

"Yeah?"

"Cat," Jade said, her forehead tense. "Cat, is your brother home?"

"Yep!" Cat said cheerfully.

"No," Jade said, closing her eyes. "No. I can't. I can't do this. Not today. I can't deal with your brother."

"Oh," Cat seemed disappointed.

"Do you want me to take you home?" Beck asked.

"No…."

"Where do you want to go?"

"Can't you just leave me on the street somewhere?" Jade pleaded, only half kidding.

"…I'm not going to do that."

"Then just take me home."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes."

"Okay…" Beck sighed and put the car back in gear. Jade closed her mouth and didn't open it again until Beck parked the car in her driveway.

"Bye," she said quietly as she closed the car door. Beck didn't pull away until she had unlocked the door and was safely in her house.

Inside, it all felt normal, and somehow that felt wrong. How could the house not have changed? Everything else had. Jade was suddenly very, very alone, more alone than she had ever been before. She could not even name the emptiness inside her; it was even worse than coming home after Beck dumped her. At least then her mother was there to hug her while she cried. There was no one left to comfort her now. Jade hadn't been convicted, sure, but this was her punishment.

_A slap on the wrist_

_Feels like soap to my eyes_


	16. After Me Comes the Flood

16\. After Me Comes the Flood

It was barely one o'clock. Though she'd just showered that morning, Jade left her clothes in a heap on the floor and slipped into the bathroom. She removed all the color from her face and her hair and let the hot water pound against her back. The sound did little to distract her from her thoughts, and the smells of the shower products made her feel nauseated.

Jade roughly dried her hair with a towel, her head flipped upside down until it felt heavy with blood. She stood suddenly, and her vision deteriorated into a blur of gray spots for a fleeting moment. She dropped the towel on the bathroom floor and as she turned out of the room, she had a sudden moment of realization — no one would be picking that towel up tonight. That towel would be there when Jade woke up the next morning. It would not appear, clean and folded, back on the bathroom shelf. If she wanted that towel again, she'd have to wash it and fold it and put it away herself. Somehow that small epiphany was enough to make the world seem like it had stopped spinning. _How am I supposed to—_

Jade was jerked out of her thoughts by a crash from downstairs, followed by muted voices. She silently snatched her pointiest scissors from atop the dresser in her room and snuck to the staircase. Soundlessly placing down one foot at a time, she made her way down the steps, scissors poised like a knife in her fist. But when she reached the source of the voices — the living room—she found that a weapon wasn't really necessary. Not a physical one, anyway.

"What is this?" Jade snapped.

"We're sleeping over!" Cat announced brightly. She was currently in the midst of covering the entire room with pillows and blankets (a process she called "cozying" and took very seriously).

"Excuse me?!" She looked to Beck, who was watching Cat amusedly from the couch. "You just invited yourselves over?"

"Well," he said a little sheepishly. "Plan A was for you to go to Cat's, but this was Plan B."

Jade sighed angrily through her nose, vaguely resembling a dragon.

"So you just broke into my house."

Beck pursed his lips thoughtfully.

"Sorta, yeah, I guess we did," he finally decided casually. Jade crossed her arms.

"Can I make cupcakes?" Cat asked suddenly.

"No."

"Yes."

Cat decided to listen to Beck's answer and scurried off to the kitchen.

"I figured you wouldn't want to be alone with either one of us," Beck confessed.

"Maybe I wanted to be alone by myself," Jade countered haughtily.

"Maybe. But I wasn't going to allow that."

"You weren't going to _allow that_? Oh, right, because I need _your permission to_—"

Cat reappeared suddenly.

"Oooh, Jadey, what movie are we gonna watch?"

"I thought you were baking cupcakes."

"The oven's preheating! Now, what movie?"

"I don't care," Jade sighed, rubbing her forehead.

"How about _Bambi_?"

"No," Beck said.

"_The Jungle Book_?"

"No."

"_Tarzan_?"

"No."

"What about—"

"You know, Cat," Beck interrupted. "Why don't we pick something that _isn't_ a Disney movie?"

"_Finding Nemo_?"

Beck sighed. Mothers died in every one of those choices.

"Why don't we just see what's on TV?" Jade suggested tiredly.

"It's the middle of the day," Beck said. "All that's gonna be on is soap operas."

"Then find one in Spanish," Jade ordered, chucking the remote at Beck and settling on the other end of the couch. He flipped to the Spanish Language Channel to find _Luz del Nuestro Amor_, which looked promising. Jade snatched a blanket from the floor and began snipping away, letting squares of thin fabric float to the floor as Lola discovered Alejandro kissing her sister and pushed them both out a window.

"I wonder what the verdict was," Jade mused quietly as the ambulance came for Lola's sister.

"Not guilty," Beck assured her.

"You know that for a fact?" she asked, surprised.

"No," he admitted. "I just know."

"You just _know_."

"Yeah. Like I said before. A gut feeling."

"That's stupid."

"Maybe," Beck chuckled. In the dramatic silence between Lola and her (former) fiancé, the two could hear Cat singing in the kitchen.

"I guess I should go make sure she isn't setting the house on fire," Jade said with a sigh.

"I'll be sure to tell you how Lola and Alejandro work out."

Jade smiled just a little as she stepped over the shredded blanket pieces and walked to the kitchen, her scissors snipping the air rhythmically.

"Jaaaaaaadey!" Cat shrieked happily as her friend came into the kitchen. "I'm making chocolate cupcakes!"

"Not red velvet?" Jade asked, genuinely surprised.

"No you like chocolate, _and_ I'm gonna put espresso in them! Also you don't have any red food dye."

"Yeah, my mom thinks it's—" Jade didn't finish that sentence. "I'll find some wrappers."

Jade popped the white cupcake papers into two muffin tins as Cat finished up the batter, the redhead somehow getting a fair amount on her face. The two girls poured the dark liquid into the tins, and Jade put them in the oven and set the timer. When they went back to the living room, wiping (and licking) batter off of their fingers, Beck was leaning forward on the couch, enthralled with the soap opera, now on its second episode.

"What's going on?" Jade asked, resuming her former place on the couch as Cat curiously picked up the tattered remains of the blanket.

"Alejandro cheated on Carmen," Beck informed them. "With Carmen's husband."

Cat gasped and Jade smirked.

Four episodes later (at the season finale with Alejandro's wedding with José), Jade's phone buzzed itself off of the table by the door. The vibrating stopped before she could get off the couch, so Jade let it go with a wave of her hand. When Cat went to fetch more cupcakes from the kitchen a few minutes later Jade's phone buzzed again.

"Jadey, your phone is ringing!" Cat said as if no one could tell. Jade's phone was in one hand, a plate of cupcakes in the other.

"I don't care," Jade said, eyes on the happy couple onscreen.

"It's Adam," Cat said, looking at the caller ID. "Should I just tell him you're busy?"

Jade leapt off the couch and snatched the phone out of Cat's grasp, Cat thankfully saving the cupcakes before they fell to the floor.

"Hello?"

_I, oh, must go on standing_

_I'm not my own_

_It's not my choice_


End file.
